New Surroundings
by CrowSkull
Summary: A new eviroment means new begginings, this new place might not be kind, but what other choice do you have than adapt and survive, luckly you are not always alone in that journey: Multi-Crossover with RWBY, Watch Dogs, Infamous, Quantum Brake and Prey (2017) that starts before the events of Volume 1...now if only I could tag all the characthers...
1. 1: Tossed Aroun Worlds

**A/N: Well hello there and welcome to this new journey, what kind of journey well… let's get some introductions out of the way.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Tossed around worlds.

* * *

U. S. Chicago: Police Radio.

"All units be advised, the suspect has been spotted near the power plant right next Blume's research center, he's considered armed and dangerous, caution is advised."

"Central this is partol, bridge to the power plant is elevated requesting, CTOS access, over."

"Copy that, attempting to get CTOS access, over."

Aiden Pearce, "The Vigilante", " The Fox", was inside of a Blume reasearch center that was next to a remote power plant, Blume has put considerable resources into this one research center with no clear sign as to why, thanks to the profiler Aiden was able to track down several afilliates to the research site and discover several shipments of strange materials and even stranger power sources, beyond fishy and also really strange, Blume had already alot of power politically and in infrastucture thanks to CTOS, but they never bothered with new scientific breaktroughs or anything of the sort, it wasn't exactly the top bussiness of the time, however he has known Blume long enough to know that whatever it was their goal it couldn't be good, it had been already two months since the last time he had contacted T-Bone, He watched his back from the Rosario brothers and so far Blume hasn't put down the bounty on his head, and bounty hunters and assassins and fixers have already been close to getting his head, but so far there has been no luck in their side an as far as he had a say in it, there would never be, and any chance he had to disrupt Blume, is for him also a chance to get back at them for all they've done, they were neck deep in all the shit of the criminal world as were The Club, The Pawnee Militia, The Fixers, The Viceroys and any of the Corrupt politicians that were also up until recently in Lucky Quinn's pocket, this private investigation was pure pleasure for him.

However he was expected, his personal disruption of Blume on the past few months had their security on alert practically 24/7, he did manage to sneak in to research center but he didn't manage to get too far without being detected, apparently Blume had also negated access to the bridge that leads to the site so that the police couldn't get here, so that there would possibly be no witness… this had trap written all over it, the guards that he already had found hadn't been pretty good at their job though as he had already disabled them with his baton, and turn their own devices against them as he was approaching the center of the facility.

"Well well, the vigilante has arrived, glad you could join this little scientific demonstration of ours." said a voice through a speaker.

"And you are?"

"Well Mr. Pearce, I'm known as Doctor Carver, and I know that you are curious as to what we have been working on."

"You could call it that."

"Well then go right ahead, see for yourself."

As Aiden stepped pass the next door he found himself in a round, large room with multiple scaffolding and at the center, a big white sci-fi like generator that had some white sparks coming out of it every once in a while, the room was massive, this generator was in the middle of it with a bit of a drop down, and at least two floors of scaffolding up.

"What is this?"

"This my dear friend is our new power generator that we have been working on, impressive isn't it, in this research center we manage to discover a new type of energy, clean for the environment, self-sustainable, and also compatible with most of the current tech."

"What's Blume's catch?"

"Oh, you mean this?"

As he said that a massive white pulse came from the reactor like an explosion, Aiden readied himself for the wors, but it wasn't a pulse meant to do him harm, well, at least not directly, he checked his phone and noticed that it was active but all of its main hacking functions were disabled, everything related to CTOS had stopped working, just then teams of fixer started appearing from entrances to the sides of the room… of course, he immediately jumped down a floor or two and dove for cover while firing at any visible fixer with his signature silenced 1911.

"Well you see Mr. Pearce, if this was purely for the sake of scientific research Blume wouldn't have put THAT many resources into it, but as of now, this power source we created is now directly tied to CTOs, and it's also directly tied to any device that has acces to CTOS, this is beyond any hacking tool that any outside or even inside Blume could create, this isn't connected to anything, this is the source, the source of power for CTOS as a network itself, anything connected to it can be unplugged, but the "it" cannot be powered off…. Granted this is a small range prototype, but with time we could make it go around an entire city, we could make sure that no hackers could enter the system anymore, we could maybe even in the future prevent any sort of violence, control anything that needs power, just with this multi-purpose switch."

"As if Blume needs any more control." Aiden muttered to himself as he took cover from the shots beign fired at him, Aiden kept changing positions constantly, as he moved he caught of fixer coming down the stairs to find him, he whacked the first one that came down viciously with his baton, then he grabbed him and used him as a human shield against the other fixers coming down the stairs, he shot about three people in the head in the span of a couple seconds, shot the last one the leg making hin fall and then release his prisioner finishing him off with his baton and using it right after to whack the guy in the floor and the stomp his head for good measure, after that he was on the move again, running faster than ever and shooting anyone that came in clear shot view.

"Come on people, this should be an easy job for you now, his access is disabled, what's taking you so long?!"

Aiden didn't stop for a second, more people were coming down but he was ready, with pistol in one hand and baton in the other he rushed the next couple of fixers that came too close, he slid to trip one guy while he shot the other in the shoulder, he got back up and hit the guy twice across the back of the head, as the other one was getting up he shot three times at his guts, another guy came close ready to fire, Aiden got out of the line of fire just in time, then proceeded to charge in and kick his knee with such strength that it bent backwards, as he was screaming he shot him in the head. There were four more fixers coming down, he rushed for cover behind some crates and other construction equipment scattered around, the fixers came down firing with SMGs, they had seen were he went so they move in to flank him from both sides of the crates he was hiding but as they turned the corner, Aiden was already gone, in fact he was right behind the couple that was closest to him, he whacked the first one on the back of his head and once again in his face head knocking him out.

"What the fu-" the other one didn't last long as before he could shoot Aiden grabbed his arm, whacked the the SMG out of his hands with his baton, Aiden whacked the fixer in the stomach and the smashed his head agains the crate and finnish him he kneed him in his face, the other guys were coming around, Aiden pulled out his pistol again now fully reloaded and shot the first guy in the head, the second one he rushed at, pushing the gun away to get out of the line of fire and at point blank shooting him twice in the stomach, he then grappeled him with his baton, even more fixers were coming, another three were coming from the front while others were still coming, Aiden trew his prisoner with all his strength, making hin fly a bit before landing next to his friends, he was still alive and one of the fixers went close to try to aid him in some way, that was his last mistake as Aiden triggered with his phone a little gift he left on the fixer, a homemade sticky explosive.

"Oh, Shit!" were the fixer's last word as he and his partners went down in an explosion of fire, smoke, blood, and body parts.

The explosion however did more than just kill them, it was close to the base of the generator, it took some serious damage, and sparks of white energy started flying about, both the remaining fixers in the upper level and Aiden took cover from them.

"How the…? Where did you? What?!" Asked Doctor Carver unsure of what just happened.

"You thought I need CTOS for everything!? I know how to make my own tools!"

"I didn't expect explosives… shit, fuck! I didn't plan for this!"

"That's human factor for you."

"The generator has become unstable!, what have you done?!, Someone go down there and kill that asshole I need to fix this!"

"Oh no you are not, it's time to dismantle your work." said Aiden more to himself than to Carver, he needed a way out of this death trap and he would need CTOS in order to have the best chances, he needed to destroy the generator, not a too difficult task.

"Hey he's over here, he's running for- **tlakc** " The fixer didn't get to finnish as he was shot in the head by Aiden, he himself was running to a better position to throw another explosive at the generator directly this time, the fixers were closing in, getting ready to shoot at him from railing up top, but Aiden was faster than them and more agile, he started jumping up a set crates to jump at the railing himself, he jumped high and aimed his landing at the first fixer that came into view, kicking him off the railing and getting ready for his buddies who were coming fast around the corner, the scafoldding still provided plenty of cover in the area he was in so he could take them by surprise, when the first guy came around Aiden was right next to him he knocked his gun out his hand with his baton and later disabled him quickly with a whack of the baton and an elbow, turning around to fire at the next guy right in the head, there was one more guy coming but he got surprised by Aiden, he couldn't even aim, Aiden grabbed his gun, ducked low just in case and fire a bullet at his skull trough his jaw.

That was the last pack of fixers for the time being, it was time to throw the explosive, directly this time, once Aiden got himself in a good position, threw the explosive and remote detonated it, this time the result was worse, the white sparks were flying everywere, a barage of them went directly for a fixer and completely fried him, killing him in a matter of seconds, the generator also started sending more shockwaves creating a soundwave like ambient, making it difficult to hear, balance oneself and even see, but Aiden didn't have time to worry, he had to take the chance now that the last of the fixers were stunned by the shockwaves, just when the sparks started to lower Aiden bolted for another location to trow one final bomb, running and climbbing up the scaffolding to a viewing plataform that had a perfect sight of the center of the genarator Aiden managed to see also a window thaled over to something akin to a control room, there was Dr. Carver desperatky trying to regain control of the situation.

"How the fuck does this… wait, Pearce!" Carver yelled at Aiden as soon as he spotted him.

Aiden wasted no time and shot at Carver, however it was for naught as the glass was bulletproof.

"Goddammit, Pearce listen to me! You have no idea what you are doing, this generator is sucking energy from the power plant plus its own source of energy, you know how much power goes into this!?"

"So much for self-sustainable."

"Pearce once this generator blows there's no telling what could happen, the energy contained has become extremely unstable, just go over to the terminal from that viewing point, please help me stabilize it I… I might even convince Blume not to kill you."

"I seriously doubt that."

"Pearce for fuck sake, just help me save my project, and our skins in the process!"

"You are just gonna lock me up in here, turn your generator up again, lock me up and hand me over to Blume."

"Pearce please this is bigger than you, this energy, this is the only prototype, the worlds needs it!"

Aiden looked over at the generator shooting sparks of lightning and shockwaves the turned again to Carver "Once again seriously doubt that… even more so if it'll belong to Blume, they already did so much, as long as I'm here they won't do more." Aiden turned back from Carver and started going to a good spot to throw the sticky bomb.

"Are you fucking kidding me- Pearce! For fuck sake think of this, we don't know what will happen, this entire building could blow up! Don't you have someone to go back to you suicidal maniac! Just think for a second, what about all those citizens that think they need you, and even if you if you live this you won't stop me or Blume, they-"

 **pagck**

The sticky bomb was stuck to the center of the generator.

"You son of a bitch."

Aiden was already in cover and ready for the explosion "Your friends at Blume don't need any more control over this city, or any other, besides, thanks to them I don't have anyone to exactly go back to, but that's for the best... and I'm also not the only one out there that won't stop until all that Blume has done is exposed, until their corruption is stopped, there are many out there, people that won't be played easily, and also… as long as I can decide, my fate is my own, I choose it, no one else, and like you said we don't know what will happen."

"Pearce."

"And what I choose is to NOT let Blume have this."

"You maniac!"

"That's my choice, and I'm NOT LOOKING BACK!"

Aiden press the detonator in his phone, **KPRAM** sounded through the research center as the generator unleashed a massive white shockwave that covered the entire room, Aiden braced himself for whatever it was to come, another shockwave came, all the fixers were already running, some getting disintegrated by giants white bolts of lightning, Aiden was right now the closest to generator and as a small but blinding shockwave came, it engulfed the center of the room in a white light and as soon as it was gone, so was Aiden.

"That motherfucker, where is he?! Where the fuck did he go?!" yelled Carver that was trying to regulate the energy from the control center in a last-ditch effort, but he couldn't control it, not anymore and a giant release of energy was coming.

"Shit." were his final words before the explosion.

 **KAPROOOM**

"This is patrol! The Blume research center has… Blown up!"

* * *

U.S. New Marais: Top of the church.

"Oh ho… Zeke… It's fully charged"

This was it, Cole MacGrath, The Electric Man, The Demon of Empire City had charged up the RFI atop the tower of the church of New Marais, the device could kill The Beast, but also do so much more, thanks to it all the victims of the ongoing plague, a plague created by the explosion that gave Cole his powers, could be cured, but there was a price… the RFI will get rid of the remnants of the Ray Sphere, but it would kill all of the conduits, the people with powers. And it was all of them, dormant active, it didn't matter, all across the world they will all die… but it was either that or let billions of people die by this plague and even more, let John, The Beast continue his work of activating the conduits in order to save them from the plague, the process also meant an explosion that needed the presence of other people… so they could die as some sort power battery, John may be doing it for humanity's survival, but too many innocents were dying, the chaos will just continue, if it meant that those millions of people could live, the billions, then Cole will make the ultimate sacrifice.

"Go on, man, push the button."

As Zeke, his best friend also affected by the plague, reluctantly told him to end this once and for all, gigantic steps could be heard on the streets, The Beast was near, heavily injured but ready to keep going, Cole had already battle it a couple of minutes earlier, his friend, Nix had died because of it… for Cole and The Beast this was round two of their first fight back in Empire City, and it was still going, all that Cole had to do was push the button and it would all be over, but he was fully charged, as well as the RFI his Electrokinesis, Electromagnetism and Cryokinesis were all amped up to a new level.

"No. Not just yet."

If he was going to die soon, then he'll die fighting and winning this round too, he wanted to do this.

"EeAaarrrgg!" Cole Screamed as he jumped off the tower ready for the final fight he would have with The Beast, it wasn't even a fight, Cole's powers had been so overcharged that he an endless supply of electric energy, and his powers themselves were also overcharged, his trusters that he generated to glide now let him fly on his own, something he never achieved before, take that world, take that other conduits, for at least now he could finally fly. And that was just the start, his bolts… oh, his bolts were now missiles on their own, and so Cole fired electric missiles one after the other, never stopping. John was paralyzed, he couldn't even fight back, the storm of lightning projectiles was just too great and they were devastating. Cole didn't waste time and got ready end it, electric rockets, grenades, blasts and shockwaves just pulverized into John's gigantic volcanic body, at the end even John's body started to explode on its own from the sheer annihilation, he couldn't fight, not anymore an so he collapsed to his knees, Cole had already landed next to him, all the extra energy spent, now he had to just push the button.

"Do it."

It was Kuo, like Nix she was also one of Cole's friends, now former NSA agent and conduit she was one of the persons that pushed Cole to do good… except at the end, once they found out the RFI would kill all the conduits, Kuo became selfish at the very end, she didn't want to die, then again nobody wanted to, but here she was now, she betrayed them, joined forces with her former NSA partner John and try to stop Cole and Nix from powering the RFI, she was defeated and in fact it seemed she didn't want to fight anymore, she was dirty, covered in rubble, coughing and crying… crumbling, Cole rushed to help her to her feet.

"It's okay."

"It's not okay… you made the right choice. Hell, Nix even made the right choice."

Well, Nix did it more for revenge against The Beast, she didn't give a damn about the world, but… he couldn't blame Kuo TOO hard, this was the end for them after all, heh… they also never got to finish the dilemma that was the relationship between him Kuo and Nix... Women.

"I was… I am scared." was Kuo final reason and in a way… apology.

"I am too..."

"Do it, Do it."

Cole did it, after letting Kuo go, he got the RFI ready to fire, once all the energy was ready, he released it, making a giant energy explosion that covered the entire world, killing all active and dormant conduits, the people of New Marais held their breath as all the monsters including the Ice mercenaries, the Swap beasts, and also all the conduits started just dropping dead, Kuo, The Beast… Cole.

But all the people affected by the plague were saved, the plague was gone and soon people were starting to party, celebrating being alive.

Zeke though Cole would go down as an unsung hero… but the People of New Marais knew what Cole had done for them, How he saved and helped them time after time, how he exposed Bertrand, the dictator of New Marais for his crimes, how he gave his life for them.

The Demon of Empire city became The Patron Saint of New Marais, a funeral was made with thousands delivering flowers at the church next to his casket and a piece of debris that now had The Amp, Cole's weapon, impaled into it like a sword into a rock. After all that was done Zeke took Cole's body to sea on a tugboat, so he could say goodbye to him alone, he was his brother after all, and in his opinion, one of the beings with most humanity in the world, Cole's body was delivered to sea… funny, Cole couldn't stand in very large pools water for long before his powers started backfiring and started harming him… maybe it was fitting… maybe not, but it was proper goodbye.

The casket was dropped to the sea, and as it was floating Zeke saw as a giant lightning bolt lighting from the ongoing thunderstorm struck the casket and as of that it started to sink, Zeke didn't know what if this was nature paying respects or some kind of joke… but either way, it was fitting for his brother. As Zeke started sailing back to land, he could have never guessed that the casket was now empty.

* * *

U. S. Riverport, Massachusetts: Monarch H.Q.

"Jack come on! He's getting close… I don't how fucking long it'll take that… thing… to find us… Jack, please stay with me."

"It's a… Reaaaghrar… harder… than it looks like Will…. Daaggh… Uh hoo, ha."

Jack Joyce was not having an easy time, he was fighting with all his strength to maintain a physical form and not give in to the void that was timeless space, ever since he got back from Thailand to help his friend things have gone upside down, long story short, he and his friend Paul activated a time machine, a time machine designed by William Joyce, Jack's brother. They created a fracture in time, a stutter, Paul didn't come back from the time machine, well he did but not in that time, and he came back much older, and as something worse, as the head of a corporation with plans for humanity to survive the end of time, and that included stealing the time machine and killing William, they failed however, as the chronon particle fusioned with Jack and gave powers that control the flow of time, he wasn't the only one, as Paul also had those powers, in fact he used them to disable Jack and kill William… or so it looked like in just two days in total Jack with the help of Beth Wilder made plans to bring down Monarch and stop the end of time all thanks to counter messaure William made on the instructions of Beth…

Beth Wilder, she became a guardian angel for the two brothers, she became stuck on a constant loop of time fulfilling a role for her entire life, being tossed around time two times, once to the end of time, the second to the past, all of that time travel, seeing herself fail and begin process anew broke her in the end, it cost her her life… but it wasn't in vain, she helped Jack survive his ordeals through time travel and guided him in a direction to stop Monarch, Jack did it indeed, he went back in time to find the counter meassure, he pulled himself back to the present to retrieve it from Monarch, and then went back in time to save William… they constantly told him that time could not be changed, that it was a constant loop that could not be broken, but he kept trying… and succeeded, he saved William while maintaining the illusion of his death and keeping the loop… it was pure luck but it worked, they traveled once more to the present to stop the fracture for good, Jack, however, had to face Paul once more, and this time defeated him, as Paul was deteriorating under the Chronon syndrome, the same syndrome that was affecting Jack right now… Jack and Will did stop the end of time, but it was temporary.

Martin Hatch was behind the scenes, he had manipulated all of Monarch into turning against Paul and also into putting himself in a position power, Martin Hatch was a shifter, a being that exists inthe end of time, creatures with hive minds that live in peace while time is stopped, for them time is fire, quite literally actually, as such he had worked to bring foward the end of time, he failed once, but now he was trying again, he had managed to make a stutter inside Monarch's H.Q. and was now pursuing Jack and Will as they were attempting to stop the end of time once and for all.

"Jack, we are getting close to the lab with the time machine, just hold on, please brother, if our theory works, it will all be alright."

"I hope you are right Will, hnng… the shifting is coming faster, it burns..."

"Jack..."

"Don't worry, I won't go down that easy… ha… we are here."

The Chronon syndrome was the sickness that affected those that were Chronon active, for all intents and purpose Jack was a shifter, with an individual mind however, but it was becoming difficult to keep a solid form in and out of stutters… he was becoming something like Hatch, a blur of Chronon particles, a thing… but that had also helped both Jack and Will realize some things about the shifters… they realize that some things that Jack affected were out of the regular loop of time, in other words, shifters could actually change things, they were out of the loop, and as such they could alter it, Hatch had done it, he showed them, Jack worked with him a bit to try and get treatment for his Chronon syndrome and to find a way to bring Beth back. Jack didn't trust him for a minute as he knew Hatch, he encountered him while the first fractured occurred and realized he was not to be trusted, he got away from him as soon as he could and now he and Will were going to play their card.

After a lot of practice and pain, they found out what exactly Jack had to do to stop the end of time once and for all, with the time machine of Monarch acting as a conduit, as it was the one that created the fracture, they would use the countermeasure and Jack would manipulate the Chronon particles and end the end of time, that and try and cure his new syndrome… there was but one problem.

"I'm disappointed in you, Mr. Joyce." Hatch was right on their tail.

"If you are trying to escape the syndrome, you should realize it is too late, becoming one of us is your future."

"Will ready the time machine and the countermeasure, I'll… heuug… deal with this." Jack said as his image started to shift more violently, Will nodded and went to the time machine to get it ready.

"It's futile Mr. Joyce, you will become one of us sooner or later, and the end of time is the only place for us truly live, a place without suffering, a place of pure peace as a collective."

"I… ehgg.. become one of you… I won't abandon my brother." said Jack barely being able to stand on his two feet.

"I must say, William is a talented and ingenious man, he made all of this possible, but sadly, he's not one of us, you are, however."

"Jack I just need one more minute!"

Jack understood the message, he went back to staring Hatch in the eye, the bastard never losing his creepy smile.

"We are gonna stop the end of time Hatch, my brother and countless others will live their lives."

"Hmm… I'm sorry Mr. Joyce but you won't stop a thing." Hatch stretched his hand and created a stutter bubble around Jack, this was different however, they were already in a stutter to begin with, the bubble was doing something else entirely, it was accelerating the Chronon syndrome, creating an ambient of time that was prime for the one affected to become part of the infinite, and this space was hurting Jack, inside the bubble Jack was screaming, one could hear it, a distorted voice screaming like if it was on fire, Jack felt like he was on fire.

"Time is fire Mr. Joyce, the pain won't stop until you let go and become part of the infinite, and the end of time won't be stopped, not by you, or your brother." Hatch started walking towards William with intents to possibly kill him, while Jack was trapped in what was basically a torture chamber, or furnace for that matter… even so, Jack couldn't let go, he wouldn't, the pain in his body was immense however and his image and physical form was scattered across the bubble, contorting in painful ways.

"Jack I… Jack..." William stood there in fear seeing the state his brother was in, while also seeing Hatch walking closer to him, showing his smile, and also starting to shift his image and form appearing to be a white scattered energy like if it was broken glass from time, showing his true nature.

"The end of time cannot be stopped William, for what is worth, I'm truly sorry."

William stared at Hatch for a bit, then at Jack, out of desperation we worked a final idea, he readied the counter measure.

"That won't work on me William, as long as we are in the stutter, nothing can stop me."

"Guess what dipshit, me and my brother we never stop trying." William tossed the counter measure directly at the bubble.

"I thought you smarter than William, that's not gonna do anything, Jack is one of us now, or he will be soon, you are the only one remaining in the stutter, and I need to make sure you won't interfere."

Jack was in pain but he saw the counter messure, it was ready, he realized what Will must have done, he needed to reach it and grab it, it was painful, extremely so, puting himself back together into a solid form just to grab the damn thing, he managed to form his hnads around it, and he pushed the trigger, Jack could barely think, he could hear the voices of the hive mind that the shifters had, he didn't stop however, he would do the same thing he did to bring himself from the past to the present all by himself, the one time he did it was thanks to the counter meassure, now he'll do the same thing but with a different purpose, with the help of the counter meassure and it's energy he started to form himself back up, the pain didn't stop, but he was regaining control, and he wasn't done, he started creating a barrier around him to repel the energy of the buble, he could feel it now, what clearly connected him to the infinite, he didn't want to be a part of it, he didn't want to lose himself, he wouldnt he won't be a fucking slave, he won't let that thing harm his brother, he won't let him fucking die because of this, and he won't end here, not now he FUCKING WOULDN'T!

As Jack though this he releases all the energy of the countermeasure into the bubble, he could feel it, the pain, ending, like he could breathe, he could feel his body reforming, his connection to the infinite… severed, he finally released all of that energy and shattered the bubble he was in.

Like a soundwave combined with the sound of glass breaking Hatch turn back a couple steps away from William as he saw the bubble he created shattered, something that should have been impossible, and stared at a fully formed Jack holding the countermeasure.

"Persistent, Mr. Joyce." He said as he stretched his hand to create the bubble again and he did, but he saw Jack walk out of it like it was nothing, he couldn't understand, this shouldn't… he then realized that he couldn't exactly feel Jack like before, he wasn't tied to the infinite anymore, his figure wasn't shifting anymore, he was cured of the syndrome.

"Impossible."

"It worked, holy fucking shit, it fucking worked!" William shouted in happiness. Jack stared directly at Hatch ready to fight him now, feeling free again, feeling ready and at full strength.

"You stay the fuck away from my brother!" Jack shouted and immediately he time dashed right to him, kicking him and sending him flying across the room and against the wall.

"Will get it ready again, I'll hold him off, this time for good."

"Jack… you are okay..."

"Better than ever. Go."

William couldn't believe it, his brother was back, he seemed cured too, but they couldn't waste more time, or time itself would end, as soon as he went back to the machine with the countermeasure Jack readied himself to fight Hatch.

"You really shouldn't interfere Joyce." said with Hatch standing back up, his body shifting constantly, but he finally didn't have that creepy smile, and that was satisfying. "I have spent too much to let it go just like this."

"Bring it on then, you son of a bitch."

Hatch dashed forward, Jack had seen what Hatch could do while dashing, his power was devastating, he activated his powers to repel him back with shield, the time sphere that he created was enough to push Hatch back, but not for long. He dashed out of the sphere and started firing at Hatch's distorted form with his burst fire pistol that he had taken from a Monarch guard, the bullets weren't doing much however, they were doing something… not enough however. Hatch started creating time blasts around Jack, he dashed away as fast as he could and started running faster, in a different flow of time to be specific that allowed him to move much faster, he ran circles around the explosions and got close to Hatch and trew a hook around his face, it hit, this seemed to have affected Hatch more as his form shifted and disorted even more, he was now more now like the first time he saw him as a shifter, an agressive, screaming, disorted thing that seemed like it just wanted to kill.

Jack dashed away immediatly, even if now he could fight back, Hatch was still monstrously strong if he landed hits on you, Jack continued firing at him and Hatch getting mad started to rush after Jack while he kept getting away, Jack drew Hatch into a corner of the room waiting for him dash at him again, he di, and as soon as that happened Jack slided to the side and behind him in the faster flow of time, his time sprint as he called it, with Hatch in the corner he trew a time blast at him, out of all the things this seemed to have done the most as Hatch screamed in a viscious howl and some parts of his figure… were gone... as if they were destroyed, Hatch did get angrier though.

He started firing time blasts and bubbles out of his hands in quick succession, Jack ducked the first barrage and dashed away from the second, firing at Hatch until his magazine was empty, Hatch didn't waste time and dashed away to a better location, he unleashed a massive time blast similar to what Paul had done in his final fight with Jack, Jack himself ran away from the blast until he was at a safe distance, he did spot Hatch moving… dashing, shifting wildly in random patterns towards him, before he could react Hatch was at his left and delivered a palm that also carried a small time blast that sent Jack flying and rolling across the floor. It hurt, the time blast itself hurt, not time, time didn't burn anymore, but still, Jack couldn't take another hit like that, Hatch was right next to him again though, this time however out of desperation Jack trough a time buble of his own at Hatch, it was different however, it had an orange smooth line around is shifting form, it stopped Hatch, in fact it seemed to have damaged him alot as he was stuck in it, Jack took this chance to look at himself and his hands, his powers and shifting form were in fact emitting that orange color, similar to the harnesses of the striker soldiers, but more smooth. He also looked at Hatch trapped in this bubble he created, it dawned on him how his bubbles weren't supposed to work in stutters as time was already stopped, but this bubble did something different, it created a space of time inside the stutter, when shifters were out of stutters they just disappear, but here Hatch couldn't disappear, he was both in a stutter and out of it, and being in flowing time was complete pain for him.

Jack had a new tactic now, reloading his magazine, he shot at Hatch, doing alot more than before, the bubble collapsed and Hatch was free, but severely damaged with more parts of his distorted body missing, Hatch started fireing his time blasts again, but Jack rolled away and ran to avoid the blasts, sliding over tables to avoid the blasts, he ran a giant circle around Hatch, then dashed to him shoulder bashing him away and fireing his pistol damageing him in a deep concentration thanks to his Chronon powers.

The magazine was empty soon, and Hatch was on the move again, but this time Jack wanted to end this in one final heavy assault, as Hatch was dashing erraticly Jack aimed carfully a time buble to stop Hatch in his tracks, it hit true, and Jack took the time to arm himself with a Monarch carbine rifle that was against one of the walls, he fired the entire magazine, the only one it had, after that he tossed the carbine aside and time sprinted behind Hatch and delivered a left hook to the back of his head. He dashed away as Hatch became free from the bubble and dashed against Jack, he unloaded an entire magazine from his pistol as he kept backing up from Hatch, he also fired a time blast to do some major damage, it hit, but Hatch retaliated with one of his own, Jack rolled away and as he got up dashed behind hatch and kicked him forward, then time sprinted in front of him to deliver two hooks and a push kick to sent Hatch flying. Jack immediately dashed behind Hatch one more as he was flying to punch him again and knock him down, once he was on the floor Jack froze Hatch with his time bubble and unloaded another magazine directly at Hatch.

Hatch was now missing his entire left arm and some other chunks scattered around his body, there wasn't blood or meat however… just pieces of white and black disrupted energy around him, and it wasn't enough to kill Hatch, parts of his missing chunks were already regenerating, shifters did need to be destroyed multiple times before they could actually die… but whatever was the case Jack needed to fully destroy Hatch until there was nothing left, some containers of Chronon besides a table gave him an idea.

Jack started running again at his normal speed around Hatch while firing, Hatch himself tried to erratically dash towards Jack but Jack was able to dodge the assault and put Hatch in a bubble again. Using low bursts of his time sprint he delivered several punches to Hatch's face and stomach, he then dashed behind him to once again hit him on the back of the head, Hatch sustained the assault and dashed backwards, behind Jack to try an shoot him with another time blast, Jack rolled away and fired one of his, but Hatch dashed away this time. Jack followed him however, dashing right next to him and drop kicking him into a time bubble he created and fired all the bullets he could at Hatch. Hatch himself was already extremely damaged, that was something new for a shifter, he had never had to fight someone who could actually fight back against him. Jack didn't waste time however as he kept fireing, dashing in tackleing Hatch out of balance and dashing away to Hatch couldn't strike back, Hatch dashed in to finally strike back with another of his punches but that was what Jack wanted as he slid under Hatch's legs and fired at his head to stun him, getting up Jack dashed backwards and elbowed Hatch on the back of the head with extreme force, he then time spinted to his right to deliver a hook, then dashed to his left to do the same from that angle, sprinted to the front to ounch in the stomach and kick foward dashed behind for another punch at the back of the head and getting in position for an uppercut from the front to sen him into the air, once Hatch was on the air Jack sprinted to a table, use to a boost to jump and delivered a flying punch that sent Hatch straing into the Chronon containers…

This was it, Jack was exhausted but he had enough energy for one final time blast that would detonate Hatch and the containers, while Hatch was trying to get up, shifting violently Jack fired his blast, and Hatch exploded with the containers in what could only be described as loud, agonizing screech.

He had done it, he had defeated Hatch… for now, he had to go back to Will and finish this, once and for all, however, as soon as he started walking towards Will he heard the sound of Hatch starting to reform himself faster than ever… he had to hurry and finish this one and for all, and kill Hatch in the process… how though… Jack thought and he remembered something important… it could work but, there was a danger to it… if it meant that time won't end and that Will would be safe… then so be it.

"Jack, it's ready, you just need to power it with some Chronon particles and..."

"Will listen to me, I'll do it, I know the process, I'll do it, but you need to leave, now!

"But why?"

"It's Hatch, he won't stop coming back I want to destroy him for good so that he can't return to repeat this fucking mess again."

"How do you plan to-… you are gonna use the countermeasure, just like Paul when he dissolved."

"Yeah, but a lot more energy now, to both fix the fracture and kill him."

"Woa. Whoah, whoah, Jack hold the fuck on, last time you did that it started your Chronon syndrome, this could start it again, or you could also be destroyed and..."

"Will listen to me, we both know how this works, only a shifter can change things for good, I'm gonna change it, and make sure it doesn't happen again, you said it yourself Will, we don't know what will happen, I could be destroyed… or not, but whatever happens I'll make sure Hatch is destroyed and that the fracture is fixed."

"But Jack."

"Will listen to me, I'm ready to do this, we both know it has to be done, even if something happens I'm not gonna die a desperate sick man, I'm cured, and I'll end it that way."

"Then we should end this together, like brothers."

"… I can't Will, you are the only thing I have left, the blast could be dangerous for you this time… and if Hatch manages to touch you… he could kill you right there and then, Will the world needs you so that whatever happens after now can be dealt with, and whatever happens, don't come back for me if I disappear… don't start this mess again Will."

"Jack..."

"I need to do this alone Will, remember… I love you, now go."

Will didn't move, standing stupefied for a couple seconds.

"Go!" Jack insisted, and slowly but surely Will made his way out of the room. Jack was alone now, ready to fix the fracture, he started powering the countermeasure to fix the fracture… there was only one ingredient missing.

 **Screech**

There he was. Hatch pounced on Jack's back trying to grab the countermeasure, but failing, in his madness Jack grabbed Hatch by the face and pulled him close to the countermeasure.

"I have noticed something Hatch, you always use those damn eyedrops in one of your eyes, those same eyedrops that contain Chronon, well I want you to use that eye..." Jack put Hatch's eye against the countermeasure "...look right at this..." Hatch attempted to struggle out Jack grip Jack had a solid hold on him. "… and say cheese!"

Jack activated the countermeasure and the entire room got filled with a blast of Chronon energy… Hatch was finally destroyed and Jack's body dissipated. When the stutter collapsed Will went back into the room… to find the countermeasure alone… Will immediately pulled out a scanner he created to verify the strength of Meyer-Joyce field, the fracture was fixed, the signatures related to Hatch were destroyed… and Jack was just gone, not destroyed but gone… to where he didn't know, Will was beyond saddened, to lose his brother again… but he didn't lose it like last time, this time they were on good terms, they saved the world together… and like his brother said, he didn't die a sick man, he didn't turn into one of those monsters, he fought to the end and in a way he won… he was still out there just… not sure were, in what flow of time… he could try and get him but… Jack was right, he couldn't let something like this happen again… he would research though, he might never get to find his brother again but… he would never stop trying.

* * *

Earth Space: Space Station Talos 1. Year 2035.

"Who-what-am I talking to?"

"Morgan."

"Morgan? Maybe. I see a person who looks like Morgan Yu."

They had found each other, Alex Yu and January were talking… Alex Yu the brother of Morgan Yu, was talking with a cybernetic operator, a machine that had been programmed by Morgan Yu with clear directives and intentions… his purpose was to help Morgan remember and make Talos 1 self-destruct to avoid the propagation of the Typhon, the aliens that Transtar used to make neuromods.

Why did Morgan need to remember, well she had basically made herself her own test subject for the implantation and removal of neuromods aboard Talos 1, she was chief, but also one of the main test subjects, say what you want about how cold she could be in matters of work but she rather put herself at risk for her own experiments. The neuromod implantation and removal has consequences and one of them was that whenever you remove a neuromod your memory would be reset to the point where you installed it, erasing any point in between.

Morgan was kept in a simulation of the same day for… god knows how long, she signed up for it, but problems started to occur, first of all, there was supposed to be a process to recover the memory loss in the process, that was skipped entirely and second the process and experiment went wrong once the Typhon broke containment, murdering and propagating themselves across the station, Morgan escaped the simulation once it broke thanks to January. January helped Morgan get across the station and arm herself with a singular purpose, the destruction of Talos 1 so that no Typhon could escape and reach Earth, that also included everyone aboard.

January was made by a previous Morgan, a desperate Morgan that wanted to make sure the Typhon won't reach Earth… but the present Morgan, the one that had a red left eye do to all the neuromods she installed, injected trough her eye, to be able to survive in Talos 1 against the hordes of Typhon, she had learned other truths, there was another way to solve this massive problem, and that was to activate a Null Wave Transmitter prototype on the place the Typhon broke containment, that device would destroy all the Typhon on the station alongside with all the coral, the thing they weaved, without harming the machines, humans or research, it was, in fact, the original plan, Morgan found a video were she and Alex planned the details for it… she even found evidence that there was an operator that she created to guide her across that path, October… however, she never found the actual operator… she could take a guess at what happened though. She did find another operator she made, one called December, that operator had plans for Morgan to escape Talos in a secret escape pod and warn Earth… December was killed by January.

January would do anything to keep Morgan deviating from his path, including killing or getting rid of certain obstacles, just like her brother would delete almost all videos of January and try to convince Morgan to use the Nullwave so that their research wouldn't be for nothing, it was almost like they both had gone insane, Alex with his fear of failure and her past self with all the memory loss and experiments, which one was the original plan? Who was her original self? It didn't matter, she was her own person now, her own Morgan Yu, she had experienced so much, fought so much, she had saved all the survivors she could find… save for the murderer in the kitchen, he was killed, she had spared the life of the Dahl, a guy that had instructions from Morgan's parents to kill her and Alex if things went wrong and it meant shaming the family, toxic family for you… the point was that Dahl had an escape shuttle out of Talos 1, big enough for all the survivors, Dahl had neuromods, and once removed his instructions were forgotten, essentially they brainwashed him but it served a purpose, they had a way out, she had also installed the nullwave and armed the keys for the self-destruct, all she had to do was push a button… she had made her choice, there was only one matter left.

"Morgan. Be cautious. Your brother is unstable. He may not permit you to activate the self-destruct. Also, he's armed."

"Unstable? is that a joke, Operator? You've let this machine poison you Morgan. I wish you understood. I've bent the course of this entire station around what you wanted. I let you persuade me. And now you are gonna throw it all away? Just stop and think for one goddamn second, Morgan!"

"The safety is off on his firearm."

"I think you said enough."

Just as Alex was about to shoot January Morgan used a taser she had to stun her brother and make him go unconscious, after that she tossed the taser aside and stared at her unconscious brother.

"I'm aware that you've primed the arming keys to destroy Talos 1, so I find the activation of this Null Wave Transmitter station… puzzling."

"January… I'm going to activate the Null Wave… there are still some things here that are important."

"The directives you gave me require that I do everything in my power to ensure you destroy Talos 1 and all the Typhon. Detonating the station safeguards the earth. And perhaps provides a small measure of reparation. You know how Neuromods are made. The demand will only increase. In the future Alex envisions, many will die for the benefit of a privileged few. I won't relinquish control of the Terminal."

January was right, Neuromod were made with Typhon and Typhon so far seemed to reproduce only by killing living beings, humans specifically, if the demand increased, criminals and other undesirables would be sacrificed for the benefit of the few able to afford Neuromods, blowing up Talos 1 meant safeguarding Earth… and it also meant everyone aboard would die… a lot of them didn't deserve it, she also didn't want to kill her brother… could humanity play with fire and not get burned, she did, she had installed some Neuromods that enhanced her human capabilities… but she used most of them so she could use abilities similar to that of the Typhon, control energy, blasts of kinetic force, Psychic powers, electric burst, fire traps, turn into small objects, telekinesis, she could feel that tinkling feeling inside her, that Typhon voice that wanted to rip everything apart, but she was still herself… if she could... maybe there was a way she and Alex could change things… what they witnessed, could they use it to learn instead… maybe…

"January… I made my choice, I'll give Alex, me, and the others, and even humanity a chance… to change things."

"If you want the Null Wave you'll have to kill me."

For some reason, this didn't seem hard at all, Morgan pulled out her shotgun from her back and killed January… the shotgun was overkill, but she didn't care, it didn't even have to do with that January was an operator, a machine… she must have really wanted this, if anything it made her more determined. She now had access to the Null Wave, that was the first part of the plan she had made, now the second part, get everyone out of the station.

There was a message coming through… it was Mikhaila, one of the survivors.

"Morgan… I don't know if you've seen… but there's alien matter ripping through the hull. You have to move, we have to move. Bozhe moi… every window in the station… it's engulfing the place. it's everywhere.

"Okay, it's time, I'm ready and everything here is set, tell Dahl to ready the escape shuttle, everyone there must go, got it?

"Yes, we'll see you there."

That was that… now it was just getting Alex to the shuttle. " **sigh,** come on Alex, you are in for a ride."Morgan sighed as she pulled all her strength and carried Alex over her shoulder as best she could, Alex might be extremely heavy… but the one of the Neuromods she installed help with that… it was still going to be hard.

She managed to reach the elevator in the arboretum of the station without resistance, the place itself had lost gravity, that did make things easier but now on the elevator as they were reaching the lobby she could see Typhon outside the elevator, two Telepaths, massive shifting masses of black tendrils, they usually had mind controlled individuals with them, this wasn't the case here however, didn't matter, they were already dangerous with their psychic blasts were still dangerous. If she was going to have any chance of bringing Alex to the shuttle bay then she would have to take them out, she dropped Alex and got ready to get out of the door of the elevator with her pistol, a recycler grenade, and her Typhon powers… she could disable one telepath, but she would still need to dodge the psionic attack of the second one… this much thinking for something that wouldn't really last minute… but that's how she survived in Talos 1, and telepaths were dangerous so it paid to be cautious.

She bolted out the door and used her psycoshock to completely disable one of the telepaths, she threw the recycler grenade between the two and started running while shooting at the other one, the active telepath managed to survive the recycler grenade and it tried to blast Morgan but she dodged out of the way with her phantom shift, leaving her after image, with the telepath focused on the after image Morgan laid down a superthermal trap, a power that let her laid down an explosive fire trap, it killed the telepath.

That was that, now back to grab Alex and to the shuttle bay. She carried Alex through the door to the shuttle bay, there was the shuttle ready to take off, there was however a group of mimics and two voltaic phantoms waiting for them… this was unexpected, but fine if this was the last that she needed to fight then so be it. The mimics started to crawl towards her, she dropped Alex and pulled out the G.L.O.O. cannon from her back to freeze them in place on the floor and the walls, she immediately shot two of the four mimics with her pistol to shatter them, back to the phanthoms, she froze one og the with the G.L.O.O cannon and then used a her lift field power to toss the statue up, once it landed it shattered, killing the phantom., tthe other one tried todeliver a shock balsy to Morgan, but Morgan dodged out of the way and slid towards the phantom shotgun in hand this time, the phantom got knoecked back and as Morgan was behind it she trowed a kinetic blast that pushed the phantom to the ground and shattered the remaining mimics, Morgan got close to the phantom, she did get schoked do to the close distance, that however helped her recover some of her psi energy, besides her suit took most of the damage, she got her wrench out and smacked the head of the phantom, splitting it, after she pulled the wrench out the phantom was dead… with all the Typhon taken care of it was time to take Alex to the shuttle.

Morgan walked inside the shuttle with Alex on her shoulder… there were people inside surprised a bit from seeing Alex but they didn't really question it, however, they did get surprised at the next bit. Morgan came to the pilot cabin and gave Dahl some clear instructions.

"Every survivor that could be found is here mam." said Dahl.

"Good, now Dahl I want you to listen to me, I'm gonna walk out of the shuttle and then I want you to launch this shuttle and get to Earth."

Dahl didn't blink, or showed much worry, he was surprised though."Are you telling me you want me to leave you in this fucking death trap?"

"The Typhon are still loose, I gotta finish it, so it will either be that plan A works and all Typhon are destroyed or then goes to plan B which is hitting the self-destruct… I need everyone out of range Dahl."

"Well fine, if you really wanna finish this is your fucking funeral mam… anything I should tell your parents or that sleeping fat ass you left in one of the chairs if things turn for the worse?"

"Alex will understand, for my parents, how about a nice fuck you."

"I'm not sure I can say that to my bosses... but I can try to sugar coat it, alright the moment you walk out the shuttle there's no turning back mam."

"Good."

As she walked out some of the survivors gave her weird looks, some tried to stand up and say something but in the end, they didn't, when she was out Dahl began the launching sequence.

"Ready or not, starting debark operations. Pre-flight check is who gives a shit. Hang on to your seat. This will be a rough ride."

The ship debarked and flew away, with that the survivors were safe… now there was only one known living person in Talos 1. Morgan Yu. And she was ready to end this once and for all, she started rushing back toward the bridge to activate the Null Wave but something seemed off… as soon as she was near the elevator she saw it, it was The Nightmare, a being that exists only to hunt Morgan as the Typhon started to consider her a threat to their species. Morgan didn't want to waste time with the thing so she used another psycoshock blast to damage and stun it and she rushed for the elevator before the massive bulky black being could get close, the door closed and Morgan went up.

The Nightmare followed Morgan trought the station, trough the arboretum, that it already folloed her this far was something different, this one was persistent, she kept moving though, with her jetpack still functional she headed towards the bridge, but the Nightmare catched up quick and and laucnched itself at Morgan with it's massive form, and did somethng unexpected it reached out with it's tantacle like arm and it damaged Morgan's jet pack, the one she used to fly on zero gravity, she spun out of control and grabbed on to the closest thing she could find, the Nightmare went sailing off but it bounce around the walls and started to go back again at Morgan, however she had recovered and used her phantom shft to launch herself towards the open space of the arboretum, the place that had trees, but the Nightmare was right on her toes, she spunned around with the G.L.O.O cannon in hand and fired at the thing at its feet as it landed on another wall, stucking it, she pulled out her pistol and fired away, it only got madder as it broke free.

Morgan tried to fire with the G.L.O.O cannon again, but it didn't fire, it was empty, frustrated she just trew the thing at the Nightmare and since they were in zero-G the nightmare flew away, directly at wall that had lightning currents running trough it, the thing got stuck and started to convulse in pain, Morgan took the chance to just try and get to the bridge, she couldn't use her jetpack or her phanthom shift, she had used the last of her psi enrgy on the last one, so she just got rid of the jetpack and started using her arms to propusle herslef towards the door. In the end, she managed to reach it but as she was opening she saw that the Nightmare got free and was coming at her again.

At the other side of the door Morgan formulated a plan, she was basically at the bridge but she still had to deal with the Nightmare, but it was weak so she used her last psi-hypo that she had and set a superthermal trap at the door, after that she climbed some beams so she was on hidden spot on the ceiling. The Nightmare came but it immediately got stuck by the fire trap, it got hit hard, just as that happened Morgan drop down on top of the Nightmare with the Q-beam and firing at the head of the thing, the weapon could make the Nightmare explode but the thing was restless. Morgan hoped off the Nightmare still filing the Q-beam, she got at close range and stuck the end of the weapon right at the head of the Nightmare, this was it, the Nightmare fought till end however and swatted Morgan aside, however the Q-beam got stuck on the monster's head and not long after it tried and failed to get it out, it exploded. Morgan got up, the Nighmare was dead, but then end of the Q-beam got destroyed, not only that, the Nighmare did manage to damage Morgan's helmet and even her psycoscope when it hit her, she pulled the helmet out tossed it aside as she started walking towards the terminal to activate the Null Wave, she also tossed aside the psycoscope as she would possibly no longer need it, she walked towards the terminal and pushed the button, she'll let the Null Wave do the work, now she just wanted to sit for a moment, and so she dicided to sit at the chair that looked like a throne, with one hand on her pistol and the other on her shotgun, she just looked trough the window, she saw the Null Wave do its job and clear the Typhon… she was, however, looking at something else, the stars, they were beautiful.

Something went wrong, of course it did, as soon as the Null Wave finished it acted up and fired again, a massive energy wave that started slowly to rip the station in two, Morgan sincerely didn't care, the Typhon were gone, she had done it, there wasn't really anything else to do, she didn't feel like there was something else she needed to do, maybe the original Mogan did had some other plans… but she wasn't her, she Morgan but… not at the same time, the old recordings did said that she had dreams were she falled outside of herself… maybe this was it? Didn't matter soon it won't matter, but in the end, she did fix things, she closed her eyes as an energy wave hit the bridge, in those seconds Morgan felt freer than ever, maybe it was the Nullwave but she could feel that voice, that Typhon voice go from a voice to barely even a whisper, she felt like herself more than ever… whoever she was… she banished in the flash of light that the energy wave generated, after that the bridge got ripped apart.

Morgan wouldn't know that the Typhon survived, nor what would happen to Earth, or that a Typhon would be made re-live her memories… perhaps that was for the best.

* * *

Remnant, Forest in Anima.

Cole woke up from his slumber and found himself in a green forest with tall trees and large vegetation in general, he stood up and scratched his head as he tried to remember what had happened, he remembered The Beast everything, he remembered dying, but now he was here… was this the afterlife then…

"Where am I?" "Hello!" No one responded, not that there seemed to be anyone anywhere near at that, he seemed alone for now, he stood up and dusted himself, he stared up at the night sky, he did notice something weird however, there was the moon, it was bigger though… and it was shattered.

"What the…?" Cole looked around and he spotted his shadow, in it he recognized that it was missing something… he didn't have his amp, that sucked but at least things were different, it meant that maybe this was the afterlife, that the RFI must have actually worked, The Beast must have died and that plague must have been cured… he could only hope. For now, however, he needed to find where he was… he still had his bag, and his phone, in a way he didn't dare but… he had to try, he pushed the button and tried to get a signal from someone.

"Hello? Zeke? Anyone?" no one answered, Cole looked around and seeing nothing he started to move in a direction that seemed almost like a road… maybe a road to the afterlife, who knew… however, there was nothing else to do… he did try to use his radar pulse… there wasn't a power source anywhere near.

"Great… I can already feel slightly… thirsty."

Cole walked for a good 20 minutes in the same direction with nothing more than the sounds of the night forest, it was quite peaceful, but there wasn't any sign of… anything, he did spot something ahead… a clearing, but in there, there was already someone, two people in fact, a guy with jeans and a grey t-shirt and a guy with trench a black trench coat, a ball cap, black jeans it seemed, black shoes and a green sweater underneath the trench coat, they both had guns pointed at each other, Cole decided to watch for a second and figure out what was going on.

"Who are you." said the guy on the trench coat.

"It's that how you greet people huh?, Pointing a fucking gun at them?" said the guy with the t-shirt.

"I haven't been able to trust a lot of people this last few months, especially in a strange forest like this, you seem ready for a gunfight though."

"Yeah well I haven't exactly been in very good spots either, are you here for a shot at that bounty Monarch has put up, is that why you are?"

"Monarch? Never heard of them."

"Now you are just bullshitting." Jack raised his gun higher, Aiden did the same.

"How so?"

"Everyone near Riverport knows who Monarch is."

"Riverport?"

Jack made a quizzical face however his thoughts were caught short as a sound came from the bushes, both him and Aiden turned their head towards the source of the sound, not their guns though, a man in a grey and white t-shirt, a sling bag and dark blue pants came out of the bushes.

"Now I feel it would be better if we all calm down here, everything can be fixed here if we talk for a second."

"And who are you!" Jack said as he raised his hand at Cole with Chronon particles alongside some bright orange lines, showing off his powers while also still aiming at Aiden.

"...The hell?!" Aiden exclaimed as he saw the little show Jack put, never shifting his aim from him, Cole didn't seem bothered however, he merely raised his arms.

"Now, you don't need to alter yourself man, " he said as he raised his hand in a surrender like way.

"And why is that? Are you with him?" Jack asked waving his gun at Aiden.

"No, but there's not really a need for anything drastic here."

"How can I trust you? any of you two?" Jack asked as he looked between the two, Cole simply started crackling lightning in his hands, Jack looked surprised while Aiden merely raised an eyebrow, for him things were just getting weirder.

"As you see I'm just like you." Cole thought Jack to be a Conduit, how were they both alive was a question running through his head, however, Jack had different thoughts, the lightning seemed like it could be a variant of Chronon powers, the words 'I'm just like you' didn't help as there wasn't to his knowledge any other Chronon active individuals besides him that weren't shifters, in his head that meant that this guy was a shifter.

"Son of a bitch!" Jack exclaimed as he threw a time stop bubble at Cole, freezing him, if he was shifter that bubble would do damage to him, just like Hatch, he turned his attention at Aiden that seemed surprised, he, however, shifted his attention back at Jack, Jack himself threw a time blast at Aiden, however the blast wasn't instantaneous, it was more like a projectile, one that he could see coming, and immediately he dove and rolled out of the way and range of the blast.

Just what happened, Jack thought, his blast and powers were supposed to be instantaneous, unless… he could feel it, there was no fracture in time, it was also different, he didn't quite felt the Meyer-Joyce field, no massive break of time or flow of time, as a result, his control over time seemed to be weaker, they also seemed to make a heavier toll on him…. alright that made some sense… but then how… he could not finish his thought as Aiden finished his roll and started firing shots at Jack while continue to move, not staying in the same spot.

To Aiden's surprise Jack didn't die from bullets, must have been those strange powers, he continued to fire, however, Jack seemed to have reacted and dashed up to Aiden to charge him, Jack was still fast, but Aiden had extremelly fast reflexes, reflexes that he had used time after time to kill multiple criminals at once in one quickdraw, these reflexes acted up just quick enough to counter Jack's charge by stepping really quick and slightly to the side, he pulled out his baton with his left hand and smacked Jack across the face and then on the stomach, using his left arm Aiden held Jack in a lock by the arm, then he shot Jack on the foot, his Chronon power protected him, but it did something, Aiden didn't stop as he elbowed him on the stomach again and trew him out of the lock, away and into the ground

Jack was surprised, but he couldn't think much of it, as he recovered from the throw he dashed away and tried shooting at Aiden, Aiden himself ran towards the trees for cover the moment Jack pulled out his gun, Aiden shot back from cover and Jack himself ran at normal time for cover, just then Cole got freed from the bubble… was that like 4 to 6 seconds, Jack's powers really did became less effective, Cole himself was confused, but assessed the situation quickly, he thought the best he could do was try to immobilize these two before they killed each other, he tried to use his cryomancy powers… but they weren't working, they weren't there.

"What?!"

That alerted Aiden and Jack that Cole was free. Cole had a direct shot at Aiden, they looked at each other for a second, Cole then aimed his hand at Aiden and fired a barrage of alpha bolts of lightning at him, Aiden rolled out of the way just in time shifting his priorities at Cole, he fired the last two shots of his pistol, hitting Cole on the leg and shoulder, he didn't know what to think of Cole just yet so he tried to not kill him, but it seemed he was also resistant to bullets… great. Cole shot another barage at Aiden as he was hit and this time Aiden couldn't dodge all of them, two bolts hit him on the center mass, it hurt, but it wasn't as bad as other things he has suffered, he rolled with the punches and got back up, Cole got ready to fire something more potent this time but got knocked around the back of the head by Jack who time sprinted behind him, he continued the sprint in front of him punching Cole in the stomach then dashing to the side to deliver another punch to the face… that was the last of his energy, he started backing away as Cole came back to his senses and shot a Magnum bolt at Jack, missing as Jack rolled to the side and started running and shooting, Cole fired more Magnum bolts, missing as Jack kept running in cirle and fireing, Cole put up a polarity shield to deal with the bullets as they were getting annoying, Jack took the chance to stop and trow another time bubble but this time Colde dodged and fired another Magnim bolt that hit Jack on the chest sending him backwards.

Cole didn't saw Aiden coming, Aiden himself threw a grenade on the floor next to Cole while he was distracted. **Bang!** Came the sound as the grenade exploded, Cole was sligthly stunned while Aiden charged in and shooting Cole on the chest and delivering a flying knee at him, Cole dropped to one knee but recovered, he got up and fired a Magnum bolt, Aiden sidesteped it and with his baton smacked Cole at the arm and then at the leg, he tried to fire with his pistol at Cole's head but he grabbed his arm and with his strenght force him to drop the gun, Cole was going to deliver a palm of electric energy straight at Aiden but Aiden himself moved quickly after losing his gun, with his baton he whacked the arm that was holding him, he then ducked and spun his own arm and body to get free of Cole grip just in position and time to avoid the palm, more skill than strength there, his spun ended behind Cole and he elbowed him on the back of the head and with his baton also hit him on back of the head.

Cole was far more resiliant than Jack, and so as he got hit again he tried to back hand Aiden, but Aiden slid between Cole's legs, Cole tried to catch him using his fist, delivering a small electroshockwave to the ground, Aiden managed to avoid it though, grabbing his pistol again and leaving another grenade for Cole in the proccess, the grenade exploded and both rolled out of zone of impact, Aiden being unscathed while Cole took most of it, Cole did get up though and started fireing Magnum bolts at Aiden again, Aiden rolled, doged and ran out of the way of the bolts, Cole trew one of his own electric grenades at Aiden, and he dove out of the blast just in time as he was running, he got shcoked sligthly by the very end of it but nothing major, he started shooting back at Cole with the last shot of the magazine, Cole dove and rolled out of the way and fired another bolt trying to predict where Aiden would be, it didn't hit him as Aiden got used to Cole's hand gestures to know when he was going to shoot, so he stopped on his tracks, that only gave Cole more chances to fire though, Aiden ducked and weaved the first two bolts but got hit by the third… however, it didn't stop him, as he once again rolled with it, with more difficulty this time but he managed none the less, Cole had to admit, this guy was more resilient than even some conduits he had faced in Empire city.

Aiden reloaded his gun and dove and rolled forward to avoid another set of bolts, he actually got quite close, both Cole and Aiden tried to shoot the other, both spun in place to avoid the shots and were about to deliver another melee attack, Cole a punch of electricity and Aiden a backhand of his baton… however both got cut short as Jack charged in back into the fray, Jack shouldered Aiden on the side sending him away… he, however, didn't pay much attention to Cole's lightning punch and so the small electric blast separated the three of them, everyone was on their knees, Aiden sprunged to action first besides being the one that had been shouldered, and as payback he shot Jack on the stomack, Jack fired with his pistol and Aiden dove out falling on his back and fireing at Jack, Jack dashed foward and this time he actually managed to hit Aiden with a punch, he was going to send another but in that little time Aiden had gotten up to a knee and blocked Jack's punch, he shot Jack on the shoulder and wacked him again across the face with his baton, Aiden turned around and sawCole ready to fire another bolt of lightning, he ducked and let the lightning bolt hit Jack, then he rushed foward towards Cole, he shot Cole in the knee and then tried to smack him again sending him away, however as Aiden had dropped to a knee he send another small blast of lightning to the floor, stoping Aiden's advance and made him back away slightly, Aiden shot again at Cole but Cole blocked it with a quick and short polarity shield, Aiden got close with his baton, Cole blocked the coming strike and tried to punch Aiden, Aide dodged out of the way of the punch and also of another one that Cole trew with swift side steps, he then hit Cole on the sides with his baton and blockes with his right arm a punch that was coming his way again from Cole, they held their arm in a strenght lock ther for about a second, Cole then opened his palm to deliver a close range surprise Pincer bolt that hit Aiden on three spots of his right side, Cole delivered a magnum blot to Aiden's chest and used and alpha blast to send him directly at a tree, stunning Aiden.

Cole saw this as an opportunity to paralyze Aiden but he got jumped by Jack again, being roundhoused kicked in the stomach this time. He was thinking of trying his sniper bolts to focus down and caught Jack and his blink like movements… but that power cost too much of his energy, he didn't have a way to recharge either… he'll have to try the old-fashioned way. Jack sprinted again and punched Cole on the face but Cole responded by sending a close range alpha rocket that knocked both of them away, Cole, however, didn't suffer damage from his own attack unlike Jack who was on his back, Cole moved in running towards Jack, Jack however raised in a second and trapped Cole again in a bubble and shot his entire magazine at Cole, overloading the bubble and making it end sooner, the impact of all the bullets at once hit Cole hard, knocking him on his back, Jack dashed and kick Cole while he was on the ground sending him rolling on the ground, Cole got up, and while Jack was reloading he fired antoher bolt that hit Jack on the stomach, annoyed Cole got close, spun and delivered a lightning palm at Jack, the small blast knocked Jack back but he time sprinted, got close to Cole and in short sprin burst delivered several punches at Cole, however, Cole managed to block one of the punches and tried to blast Jack with a Magnum bolt, Jack dodged the attack and dashed when Cole tried to punch him. Jack was moving really fast but, if Cole had learned something from Jack was that he tended to attack from the sides or the back… and if his instincts were right, he was to his back, Cole threw a back kick and it hit true, Jack was sent a couple meters away holding his chest, it was a strong kick, soon enough Jack saw Cole coming with another electrically charged punch, at the moment he saw it he hadn't time to dodge and he already had spent too much energy dashing., he just put his hand forward trying to catch the punch… and he did, there in the middle of the clearing lightning and Chronon particles were fighting on a lock of strength, Jack holding Cole's punch and Cole trying to push forward, however they heard a beep between them, they look down and saw a grenade.

 **Kpamm!**

Aiden had gotten back up and after the explosion went directly after Jack and Cole that had landed next to each other after the explosion, he smacked the now stunned Cole at the back of the head with his baton, then his face, shot Jack on the foot again, round house kicked his face, turned back, kneed Cole on the stomach and then smack Jack across the face with his baton, Jack dropped to his back while Cole reacted and blocked the back hand pistol whip that was coming his way, he then ducked a strike from the baton and tried to shoot at Aiden. Aiden dodged the bolt and fired at Cole's shoulder, it hit but Cole fired back at that exact moment with his other hand, the Magnum bolt hit Aiden and knocked him back, Jack came back dashing and punching Cole on the side, then dashing towards Aiden who rolled with this literal punch no matter how much his body was hurting, Jack ran and fired at Cole as he started running in circles, Aiden did the same, also fireing at Cole, Cole put a polarity shield against Aiden but had to endure Jack's shots, he tossed a lightning grenade in front of Jack hitting him with the blast, he turned around and fired an alpha rocket at Aiden, Aiden slid underneath the rocket fireing at Cole, Cole did get hit by the first shot but blocked the rest with his polarity shield, Aiden spun dodging another bolt from Cole and back handing him with his baton and side kicking him away, Aiden wanted to throw another grenade but Cole shot another blast that knocked Aiden away. He didn't saw Jack preparing a time blast however, and got hit by the full force of the time blast and went flying to away.

Here they were the tree of them, back again standing in sort of triangle in the clearing, just for a second they looked at each other, trying to figure out what would the other do, the three rushed back at each other until they all saw a purple light with a small yellow core in the middle of the tree of them, it exploded separating them and knocking them on their asses.

"What the hell is going here!" screamed a woman in a strange, red, quarantine/astronaut-like suit, she was stretching her left hand out as the other held a pistol, she also had a shotgun on her back. "Why are you-"

"Don't come close to him, he's a time anomaly!" Jack yelled pointing a finger at Cole.

"A what?" Cole responded

"He's is dangerous!" Jack said again ignoring Cole

"Dude, you were the one that started attacking me, both of us!" Cole retorted

"Haa… You also seemed really happy to do the same!" Aiden finally speaking retorted back.

"I needed to stun you so you guys wouldn't kill each other." Cole argued

"Why would you care!? Came the voice from Jack while Aiden asked: "That's your idea of stunning."

"It would have worked if you hadn't keep getting up! Just how much electricity can you take!?" Cole asked pointing a finger at Aiden an ignoring Jack. Aiden for his part didn't answer.

"Why are you here? The fracture has been fixed!" Jack shouted directly at Cole.

"What fracture?!" Shouted Cole back

"THE FRACTURE IN TIME DAMMIT!" Jack shouted… then there was silence, Aiden, Cole and now Morgan looked at each other sharing glances and shrugging. Jack did notice, and was getting confused.

"The fracture… at Riverport?… with the time machine and Monarch?… the destroyed bridge?… the train on the building…?" Jack continued, trying to get some sort of answer, but the three people before him did the same routine… did they not know, but the guy was shifter… or was he…? Jack really didn't put much time to think things.

"I mean… you control time, you must have noticed… right?" he spoke directly at Cole

"… Lok man, if time control is you power let me tell you that's not my power."

"But then what…?"

" I control electricity," he said as he crackeled lightning between his fingers, Aiden did look at the show, but kept ready in case another fight came, same as Morgan, Jack, however, had a rather perplexed expression on his face. "Tell me did you saw me moving like you, or doing anything similar to you."

Jack pondered and realized he was right. "Then you… but you said you were just like me."

"I have powers, I'm a conduit, aren't you one?"

"Conduit?… no… I would be called more as a... shifter, a Chronon active individual."

"A what?" Cole responded

Jack didn't know what to think or say at this point, Morgan and Aiden were still quiet, eyeing the two protagonists of the conversation, Cole also seemed, confused…

"Have you heard of Conduits? Of the destruction of Empire city?"

"Empire city?" Aiden spoke up.

"Yeah, my city, the one that got destroyed by The Beast."

Aiden didn't know what he referred to by Beast but he did know one thing. "As far as I know there isn't a city called 'Empire city'."

"What?!" was Cole's response

"… Yeah, I haven't heard of a city like that either." spoke Jack this time.

Cole was confused, all of them were looking at each other confused, however, the next question came from Morgan, the newest arrival.

" What year is it?" After looking all of them over and noticing their clothing, she couldn't help but have a knacking feeling, it was really classic fashion for her time. Or in other words old.

"Huh?" said pretty much the three of them in unison.

"What year is it?!"

There was silence for a second but Cole was the first to respond.

"2011" came his number with no doubt on it.

"… 2016." came the number from Jack, he and Cole looked at each other again perplexed.

"… 2014:" Came the voice of Aiden now, now the three of them were looking at each other, in silence. They all slowly turned to Morgan who was the last one remaining to give any sort of number.

"… 2035." she said with a sigh, everyone else seemed a bit surprised… but not much at this point, considering her outfit, they all stood there in silence, for a moment, eventually, though Aiden came close to a tree and finally slumped against it, drawing the attention of everyone else. He seemed tired, he was holding his stomach, taking heavy breaths, he was injured from all the fighting, mainly all the shocks. Jack, Cole and Morgan looked at each other until all of them went close to Aiden to check on him, as soon as they came close though Aiden pulled his gun at them, still sitting against the three and still breathing heavily, the threat was clear however.

"Now calm down dude, we just-"

"Calm down… **snort…** that's rich coming from you, you are the one that attacked both of us."

"I thought he was a… time monster.!"

"Thanks." Cole said sarcastically

"And you came out pointing a gun at me!"

"I pulled a gun at a stranger after waking up on a strange forest I have no memory of going to, or entering, a stranger that also seemed armed and ready to do same, I really don't know who pulled the gun on who first."

Jack stayed silent, slightly gritting his teeth for not being able to come up with a justification, he panicked plain and simple, he let out a sigh and decided it was best just tell that.

"Look… I panicked, I told you there's a bounty on me… I'm a wanted man."

"Hmm… well, you are not the only one… for either of those."

There was a silence and everyone stood still, Aiden still pointing a gun at all three of them despite his injuries.

"So what's gonna happen next? What was the plan?" Aiden finally spoke, Jack and Morgan were wondering how to defuse this, however, Cole took a step ahead and answered.

"I'm going to help you get back on your feet, I can heal you right away."

"Really? You are not just gonna come close and shock me again?"

"I will shock you… but it will heal you, think of it as a defibrillator."

"How can I trust you?"

"… you don't seem to be too injured, but still, it might be your best option, and there don't seem to be a lot around here pal."

Aiden kept his gun trained… however he eventually lowered it and with a nod gave Cole and in extent the others permission to get closer, Cole got close and gathered lightning around his hands, it did look like a defibrillator.

"So… I take it is normal for us to have people wanting to kill us?" Aiden asked the group in front of him

"Regular part of life by now." answered Cole, Jack and Morgan didn't really answer but the silence it went around as a yes.

"And fighting people to reason is another pass time?"

"Once again, I wasn't trying to kill, just subdue… and yes it has happened, there has been a couple fight first, become friends later."

"Hmm… same here actually… does that apply to the rest" he said eyeing Jack and Morgan

"More or less..." responded Jack.

"It was in a way." said Morgan thinking of Dahl and in a way her brother. Aiden acknowledged the answers with a humm.

"So would that make us friends now?" Cole asked as he was ready to heal Aiden.

"Actually help me and then we'll see." Cole gave smirk as an answer and healed Aiden, from Aiden's point of view this guy wasn't lying, it was like a defibrillator, there was a bit of a sting but apart from that he was surprised… his heavy breaths stopped and also did his pain, he didn't feel the burns anymore or anything of the kind, he was about to pull himself up when he saw the man had just healed him was offering him a hand, he took it and with his help got back up. Jack was surprised and Morgan was in a way fascinated that just like that someone could be cured or healed.

"There, name's Cole, Cole MacGrath." Cole said still holding Aiden hand this time in a handshake

"Hmm… Aiden Pearce." Aiden said as he returned the handshake, let go, and then started looking at the others, same as Cole.

"I have to say thanks, you did stop us from just… killing each other, you..." Cole started saying towards the woman that stop them.

"Morgan, Morgan Yu."

"Morgan?!" Jack asked stranged at the name, it raised an eyebrow in Cole, not so much on Aiden.

"Well… Morganna… but I prefer Morgan a lot more."

"Huh, Fair enough?". Jack responded

"And you…?" Morgan asked Jack, he was the last one remaining and he had already said his name to Aiden… in a way, but still, it was better to follow the example of the others.

"Jack Joyce... for what is worth, I'm sorry for panicking." it was acknowledged by the others.

All of them started walking towards the middle of the clearing, when Cole addressed the Elephant of the room.

"So... anybody knows where we are?"

"No." was Aiden dry answer.

"Not the slightest idea." said Jack.

"Don't even ask me." was Morgan's response.

"Well… I wouldn't know, has anyone seen any sign of civilization? Roads, lights… anything?"

"In the almost half an hour I've been here I haven't seen any of those, just… forest." said Jack.

"Hmm… there's no sort of signal around, which is strange considering I should have access to at least an internet, mobile or satellite signal whether is connected to CTOS or not." said Aiden pulling out his phone, double checking for anything that might tell them where they were.

"CTOS?" asked Morgan at Aiden.

"… I'll explain later…" Aiden tried to look for something on his phone but anything trying to connect to anything showed error and there wasn't any map available via satellite either. "Hmm… yeah, there's nothing I can get we are, no signal, no map, can't tell where on Earth are we."

"If we are even on Earth that is." said Morgan.

"You are not suggesting we are in some sort of Alien planet are you?" Jack asked.

"It wouldn't be the strangest thing here considering that we all seemed to be from different times, and if I had to guess we all woke up in this forest without knowing why." everyone nodded their heads, Cole put his hand on his hips as he started walking around slowly, thinking.

"To be honest I thought I was somewhere in the afterlife." Cole said.

"Why is that?" Aiden asked Cole

"Well, before I got here the only thing I remember is well… dying in an explosion."

Aiden looked surprised, but he immediately looked both at Jack and Morgan who had a similar expression to him. Cole also noticed this too.

"I take it that-"

"We are again in a similar scenario? Yeah Cole, I think we are." Aiden said, while Morgan and Jack nodded their heads.

"Was it an explosion by any chance?" Cole asked the three of them.

"Well, it was an explosion of sorts, like a massive release of energy." Jack said answered for his particular case.

"For me it was a giant wave of energy." said Morgan.

"… Something between the two." Aiden said as he pointed at both Jack and Morgan.

"Huh… so could we be death?"

"I felt pretty much alive the moment I was shot with lightning bolts and charged by two guys with superpowers."

"Again I'm sorry." Jack said in defense.

"For someone normal, I gotta say, you might be the toughest person I fought that doesn't have powers." Cole said to Aiden

"I'll take it as something special..."

"Anyway as far as we know we are either dead or on a different planet… unless one of you comes from a place with a fucking shattered moon." Jack said looking up at the moon.

"It is interesting though." Morgan said walking next to Jack and looking at the moon.

"I mean shouldn't we be maybe freezing or something if it is shattered." Jack asked

"It doesn't work that way, something like that would only happen if the moon fully disappeared, or if it got completely destroyed, as it is even if it was fully shattered it would still coalesce itself together due to its gravity, and it would have the same effect." Morgan explained.

"You seem to be petty knoledgeable." Aiden remarked.

"I was on a space station, is something you would more or less expect, you do learn a couple things about space when living on it."

"So I take this isn't also the Earth of the future."

"No… my moon was intact."

"Okay then, what should be our next steps then." Cole asked

"We should start moving somewhere, wherever we are we can't stay here, we aren't exactly close to anything, I haven't even seen a river or something edible." Aiden said.

"So we just go… where?" Jack asked trying still come to terms or trying to reason where they were.

"Anywhere we can go… I came in that direction." Aiden said pointing behind him towards the trail he came from. "Didn't see anything of note, or much open space besides this clearing."

"The forest is pretty dense, when I was coming up I couldn't see much either, we seem to be right in the middle of it." Morgan said joining in the conversation.

"Great… middle of nowhere." Jack said as he walked and looked around.

"I didn't see anything either, we should look for a high spot, a vantage point where we could look for any sort of road or city."

"Seems like the best course of action." Aiden said.

"I did spot a mountain." Jack said, everyone turned towards him. "It was pretty far away though, like maybe a three or four hours on foot, and that was before I started walking this direction."

"Well seems we have a destination, where did you came from?" Aiden asked, Jack pointed towards the bush he came out of.

"Okay… maybe it's better we move while we have energy left on us." Aiden said o the others.

"I don't disagree." said Morgan a little more eager for at least having a plan.

"Let's go then, not like we have anything better to do." Cole said

"Well, let's move." Jack said as he started walking towards the path he came from, everyone followed him. "We should be able to see the mountain through the trees a little bit further, from then it's just a long walk through the fo-" He didn't end his sentence however as he stopped in his tracks.

"What?" Aiden said as he and the others came close, and saw what stopped Jack, in the bushes they could see a pair of big red eyes looking at them, then they hear the snarl of something akin to a wolf or dog.

"What the fuck." Cole said as he backed away slightly, same as the others. As in cue a black werewolf-like creature with red eyes and a bone mask with red markings and bone spikes on its arms and back came out, a beowolf… not that any of them knew it's actual name though. It walked calmly staring always at them, looking at them as prey.

"It's that a… werewolf?!" Jack tried to guess.

"Maybe? Who knows." Cole said.

"I'm really starting to think we are in some sort of Limbo."

"Just as long as we don't need silver bullets." Aiden said as he pulled out his gun, Jack did the same, Morgan pulled her shotgun from her back and Cole took aim with his electrified hand, however, more started coming out of the woods and bushes, there were more, many more, an entire pack of them, and they were slowly approaching. Aiden, Cole, Jack and Morgan backed up into a cross formation covering each other's backs, prepared for whenever the beowolfs would strike.

"They are covering all sides..." Aiden said gruffly

"Claws and teeth seem razor sharp… and those bones might be like armor..." Morgan said cocking her shotgun.

"Whoever this goes, let's make sure to not hit each other." Cole said.

"You seem the most explosion-happy out of all of us with those rockets." Jack said as he started accumulating Chronon energy on his hands.

"Don't worry I won't hit you."

"...Right." Jack and Aiden said in unison.

"Boys! Uh..." Morgan yelled, the beowolfs were getting anxious, and getting ready, in a split second one of the pounced while the others followed it's lead charging, however as that happened everyone sprung into action. Cole jumped up towards the pouncing beowolf and creating a gigawatt blade on his arm he cleaved it in two from head to tail, he landed with a small thunder drop creating a small distance between him as his groups of beowolfs. Aiden rushed another group while shooting one beowolf on the legs, it fell to ground and Aiden jump over it and kept going, the beowolf tried to get up but it got finished by Morgan's shotgun, she then dashed away to fight her own group, Jack did the same running towards another beowolf, put it on a time bubble, released half magazine into its skull and kept running towards a group, as soon as the bubble broke, the head of the beowolf got shattered.

Aiden had slid to the side and dropped another grenade next to the beowolfs, one died while the others came out injured, Aiden rushed in shooting at knees and shoulders, the closest beowolf to him dropped to a knee but still tried to swipe at him, Aiden dodged and with his baton on the left hand he smacked and backhanded it before shooting a couple times it point blank on the side of the head, it died. The next beowolf was still alive from explosion but heavily injured and sluggish and so Aiden finishied him with another swift strike of his baton at its leg and then face, knocking it down and shooting at its head while it was on the ground, two more however came around trying to charge him, Aiden rolled out the way and then charged to the closest one, it tried to grab him and knock him to the ground, but Aiden shot at its head, stunning it and procceding to jump on it'd leg up to his head, blancing on it'd head and shoulder to shoot at its head about three times, the beowolf was lossing its balance and so Aiden jumped on its head, stomping it and came down with his baton cracking the bone mask and bringing the boewolf to the ground hard. The other one swiped at Aiden but he blocksed the swipe with his baton by hiiting it on the elbow joint, and smacking it across the face he then kicked its leg with such force it bent backwards, it howled in pain , Aiden then shot at its chest twice before it tried to swipe at him again, Aiden ducked past and the beowolft tried to back hand him but he blocked it and with his baton, avoiding the spikes, and apllying pressure on its elbow broke its arm, also bending back wards now, he took the chance to reload and then finished off the beowolf shooting it on the back of the head. Another beowolf came charging at him, however, Aiden run towards, and like if it was horse mounted him spinning around its neck and started shotting at the back of its head, the beowolf came crashing down, it was alive but Aiden whacked it's head viciously until bone cracked and black blood came out, finally he curved stomp it, finishing it, and like the others it's body started dissipating.

Jack for his part had dashed to the side of a beowolf and punched its head, it did hurt, however the beowolf was knocked backwards and as it was falling on its side Jack locked him on time stop bubble, tow more beowolfs were coming but he quickly blasted them with a time blast, killing them instantly, he then fired some bullets at the beowolf stuck on the bubble, however he was cut short by the snarl and swipe of another beowolf, Jack dashed away and again back with a kick, he then to delivered two punches and a kick to it's balls, it worked to Jack's surprise, he did it on instinct, not because he thought it would actually work but he capitalized getting away and shotting at its head, th beowolf stumbled backwards and fell dead but another one came to replace it, Jack tried shooting its face, it kept at away but the bone armor protected it. Jack had to reload, just then the other beowolf came free and got pelted by the bullets Jack had shot into it, it was greviously injured but alive non the less, it swiped at Jack but he rolled out the way just in time, the other beowolf also came back to it's feet and joined the fray, jack had to move fast so he did, he time sprinted around them and rushed one delivering sevral punches to its head so that it pushed back, the other one was coming to strike him but he delivered a back kick to it and knee to its chest, he trapped this one on a bubble and fired some shots, then he turned to other one and combining his dash and sprint delivered a really strong drop kick. It went flying and hit a tree, killing it, maybe a broken neck or just injuries, it didn't matter, the time stop bubble broke and the other beowolf also died.

Just then another beowolf came pouncing Jack, he didn't react in time and fell with the beowolf straddling him, Jack managed to dodge a bite and tried to fire, but the gun just made click… he had run out of ammo, he just then avoided another bite adn tried to think of a way to get out of the situation, but he then saw Aiden jump on the beowolf's back and shooting at the back of its head, the beowolf started to slump and Aiden hit it on the head with his baton and jumped off, Jack rolled out of his position, got up and dashed kick the beowolf on it's head, making it fall on it's back, right there Aiden shot at its head, killing it.

"Haa, he… thanks." Jack said to Aiden, breathing heavily.

"Youn are welcome." Just then another two beowolf cam and tried to attack them on unison, however they both looked at eachother and seemed to agree on an unspoken plan, they both rushed straight at the beowolves, Jack dashed foward and punched one beowolf in the face, disorienting it before rushing to the other one, Aiden meanwhile smacked the head of the beowolf twice with his baton before using it to sweep its leg, it fell and Aiden busted two caps and it's skull, Jack dealed with the other one punching and kicking, he managed to kick it's knee and make it stumble, just then it tried to swipe at Jack, but Aiden shot at its arm, making fall limp, Jack then kicked the beowolf away and blasted it with a time blast.

"Hooo… that's that." Jack said, however he was tossed something on his hands before he could think something else, it was a short, break action, two-shot shotgun… really short too... could possibly be used with one hand.

"You are gonna need that." Aiden said as he tossed Jack two small pouches full of shotgun shells. "Let's go now, we gotta help the others." Aiden said running off, Jack adjusted the pouches and followed him.

* * *

Once Cole had landed his thunder drop he aimed a grenade at the group he had just scaterred, a group of about eight beowolves, the grenade exploded leaving some beowolves convulsing while the others tried to charge for him, as they tried to get closer, Cole kept blasting them with high power magnum bolts, switching hands between bolts for a better rate of fire, the beowolves got close eventually and tried to pounce him or swipe their claws him, but Cole evaded their pounces rolling away and sidesteped their swipes, when they were finally really on top of him he started several backflips to avoid their attack and got to safe distance to continue blasting them, he kept this up while backing up from them until the beowolves were dead from the immense amount of electricity, that was three dead, two more from the grenade, only three more remaining, those beowolves recovered from their convulsing state.

Truth be told Cole could have ended them much easier, be he had already wasted too much energy in the fight with Jack and Aiden, if he wasted much more too quickly he'll be empty before he could realize and then… he'll be almost useless and also more vulnerable, so he would have to play it simple and play it safe, using powers that used less energy. The beowolves were closing in and this time Cole thought it appropriate to charge right back at them, he jumped and kicked the jaw of the closest one, as he was still on the air he fired more bolts at its face and descended with an electric punch to its face that killed it. The next one tried to swipe at Cole but he ducked and delivered an uppercut followed by a hook, the beowolf was knocked away and Cole shot more magnum bolts at the other beowolf, it was trying to pounce on him but the bolts knocked it out of the attempet, Cole delivered a palm that generated a elcetric explosion right at the beowolf's chest and rushed it with a backflip kick that knocked whatever little life it had left out of the beowolf, the only beowolf remaining tried to charge at Cole and maul him but, Cole turned around and creating two gigawatt blades he cleved it by the mid section.

So much for these things, Cole thought, they weren't that different from the swamp mutants… they seemed more deadly though, there was a fifty-fifty chance that a swamp mutant actually just knocked you down and leave you… this things however, it didn't seem like the case. Cole got knocked out of his thoughts by a tingly feeling, one he knew, electricity not from his body.

On her end Morgan had dashed behind a beowolf and blasted it's scalp with a shotgun blast, killing it, however tow more coming for her, that was fine however, she out down a superthermal trap, that kncked the beowolfs down and lighted them on fire, she got close to them and used her shotgun to finnish them, she needed to reload, she finishied but just then a beowolf took the chance to pounce at her bringin her to the ground, it tried to bite her, however the bite just got blocked by her backslash power, a barrier of energy that allowed her to just take no damage from an attack, when the beowolf bounced it got pushed back from Morgan and she took the oportunity to shoot at it with shotgun and pistol, the beowolf got shot in the chest with a shotgun blast and then recived four shots going up from the chest to the head, it fell backwards dead soon after, Morgan got up and ready, there were three more beowolves coming for her, she avoided a swipe from one and sent a kinetic blast that separeted the three of them, she then blasted the leg of the closest one off with her shotgun, it took two quick shots but it worked, she then moved for the other two shooting with her pistol at them, both of them got pelted with shots but kept their position and started moving towards her, she slided past their swipes and bites shooting at one twice on the chest and once on the head when she got past them, the other one tried to punce her, but Morgan dashed with her phantom shift to the side and shot the beowolf twice on the side with her shotgun, it fell down from the power of the shots, she shot at its body with her pistol while it was on the ground, it was still alive however and so she got close and pummeled the life out of it with her wrench.

Despite handling herself well enough it was getting troublesome, she wasn't fond on wasting so much ammo like this, but she didn't see much other options, her powers also were taking a toll on her, even though they were easier to use thanks to that Typhon voice out f her head… or at least quiet, but without the psycoscope they were slightly harder to manipulate, she right now had enough psi energy for one more power, but that was it… more beowolves were coming three more came from the bushes and next to them was the beowolf with the leg blown off crawling rather fast towards her, she wasted no time and seeing them all together she shot an electrostatic burst that separated the beowolves and stunned them, now she would have to think, the best way to take them out… but as she was thinking a two lighting bolts stroked two of the beowolves and soon Cole was there finishing the beowolf without a leg with a kick to the head that send it flying across, there she saw as Cole basically took the remains of the electricity from the electrostatic burst and used it to what seemed to be powering himself up.

"So… that's how your powers work?" Morgan asked Cole.

"Yeah… I need to suck electricity basically, it fuels me and my powers."

"I can do something similar… look it doesn't matter if it hurts me, I need you to shock me."

Cole pondered for a second, he also saw the beowolfs convulsing but starting to stand up on all fours, he got close to Morgan and prepared himself. "I'll shock you… but I don't need to hurt you." as he said he extended his hand close to Morgan, he created a little ball of sparks on his hands that started to throw some sparks at her, however like Cole said, it didn't hurt her, the energy went through her, refilling her psi energy without trouble or pain, for Cole's part it wasn't either a problem, it was always convenient that he could produce more energy than he absorbed.

"Feeling ready?" Cole asked Morgan with a smirk, he was also signaling at the beowlves, Morgan answered with her own smile.

"Totally." was her answer.

Both of them got ready,Cole extendig his hand with electricity taking aim and Morgan with two fingers on her forhead and the other on her shotgun, the three remaining beowolves were now coming for them, Morgan hit the closest one with a psycoshock, it blew it's head off, the other two were assualted by Cole who shocked both of them with Magnum bolts, one more that the other, the one he focused on was less injured than the others, and so he came close still shooting bolts and with a solid electric punch he delivered a small explosion that killed it, the other one started coming back from its shock but got immediately whacked across the head by Morgan's wrench, it fell down and Morgan delivered a strong trike that split its skull, soon it was dissipating.

Cole and Morgan looked around, there didn't seem to be any more, whoever another small group came out of the bushes, six more, one came in charging, however before both could do anything it got interceped by some shots at its arms and legs, imediatelly it got its leg swept by Aiden's baton, Aiden went to another two beowolves while Cole took the chance to get on top of the downed beowolf and pummeled its head with punches and finally shot it's head with two Magnum bolts, killing it. Aiden rushed two beowolves shooting one on the arms and legs and bashing it across the face with his baton, he ducked their swipes and jumped on the other one, shooting it once and using it as a stepping stone to jump back at the other one and with his baton back hand it while in the air, the beowolf fell down while the other go pushed away, Aiden turned back to the other one that had recovered and was going to swipe at him from above, Aiden side stepped and shot its knee making it drop, Aiden struck, backhanded and stiked again it's head and finally shot two bullets at it's jaw killing it, the other one was getting up but soon got roundhoused kicked by Aiden on the face, falling down again, then with three swift strikes to head, the beowolf was dead.

Two more beowolves were getting ready to strike, Aiden was ready, however the beowolves got hit by a superthermal trap that Morgan put down, they flailing and whimpering trying to put the fire out, Aiden looked back and saw Morgan with her hand extended out, making it obvious she was the one that did that, Aiden looked next to her and the final beowolf was ready for a pounce.

"Watch out!" Aiden shouted, Morgan looked behind her and saw the beowolf, but soon it got blasted with what could only be described as a sphere of white energy, one of Jack's time blasts, soon enough there was Jack, putting one of the burning beowolfs in a time bubble and dashing towards the other one shotting it and killing it with his new shotgun.

"Oh man!… this works AND feels better than expected!" Jack said to himself, Aiden started shooting the other beowolf, Morgan followed suit with her pistol, once the bubble broke, the beowolf flew away from the impacts of the bullets, it was clear enough it was dead, another final beowolf jumped from the threes to the ground to try an attack, but Cole saw it and dropped on him cutting both its arms off with his gigawatt blades, then with an elctric palm he pushed it away and into the ground, Jack was right next to it and soon enough he finished it with a shot to the head.

That was it… everyone now had heavy breaths, the bodies were dissipating and the fire was also dying, good too, they wouldn't have to run from a forest fire.

"Okay… that seems like all of them." Cole said

"Seems so… at the end they weren't that tough huh." Said Jack reloading his shotgun.

"You almost died." Aiden said back at Jack.

"Apart from that."

"Hmm..." Aiden didn't felt it was necessary to say anything else, Morgan was quiet, she was hunched over a dissipating beowolf, looking at it, due to their black form and body she thought for a second they were Typhon, but no, that was not the case, Typhon didn't dissipate like this, their skin also looked different, they didn't normally have red marks, and also more importantly, didn't grow bone spikes or masks, the fact they weren't Typhon really relieved her.

"Well, could have gone worse." Cole said looking over the dissipating bodies.

"We should get moving soon." Aiden said looking at Jack now. "You still remember where you came from?"

"Yeah it's..." Jack stopped his sentence however, he looked behind Aiden and Cole with widen eyes, behind them and behind the threes were a couple of giant red eyes looking at them, Morgan also saw them and stood up immediately also with widened eyes, soon a massive roar and the sound trees being ripped apart and tumbling to the ground could be heard, alongside the tremors on the ground. Cole and Aiden didn't seem fazed however, in fact, they hadn't even turned around yet.

"Of fucking course..." Aiden sighed turning slowly around.

"There always has to be a big one..." Cole also sighed doing the same.

In front now of all four of them was giant Ursa Major, bigger than most hunters of Remnant usually saw, once again they didn't know that, it hardly mattered however.

"This one… looks like a giant bear." Cole said.

"It's a lot more armored… and I would say that's a lot more fat to chew through." Morgan said, the Ursa Major replied with a snarl.

"I think it heard you." Cole said to Morgan, she actually responded with an apologetic smile, everyone got their powers and/or guns ready again.

"Does anybody have a plan here." Jack asked

"You mean besides not letting it hit you, try to hit hard and also not hit the armor?" Aiden said looking the giant bear over, Morgan was right, it's body may have too much fat for normal bullets, and the head and jaw also looked better protected, and getting close to it was going to be hard… however, there might be a chance to slow it down.

"We gotta stun it, with whatever we have, doesn't matter, also go for the legs, its joints, the head, slow it down!" Aiden shouted at the group, they seemed to agree, and separated a bit, the Ursa Major took this a sign to attack and so it charged at them.

Everyone rolled or dashed away from the hulking beast as it charged past them tearing pieces of grass and dirt with its claws as it skidded across the ground to turn around at the group, Jack and Cole were the first to strike, Jack dashing in close blasting one of its legs with two shotgun blasts and dashing away immediately from some massive claw swipes, the leg didn't suffer that much damage, Cole rushed from the front shooting bolts at its head, he got close ducking a swipe and stabbing it with a gigawatt blade in each arm, they both stuck to its stomach, the Ursa growled and so Cole dissipated his blades and ducked under and backflipped over claw swipes, he then jumped on it's arm and used to boost himself up and fire bolts and rockets directly at the Ursa major's back, it snarled and tried to back hand Cole but he was too far away by now, and the ursa was already bieng pelted by bullets being shot by Aiden and Morgan, both using their pistols, then Jack came back dashing and jumping towards the Ursa's head, he delivered a strong punch and fell rolling on the ground, the Ursa staggered but nothing more than that, Jack shot twice and reloaded and kept shooting at it until it got tired and tried to maul him with both its claws, Jack sprinted away immediately and got to safety, Morgan and Aiden moved around the massive beast shooting it at it's head, arms and legs, soon it was being shot from all directions with bullets from Morgan, Jack and Aiden and lightning bolts from Cole, they were all going on a circle avoiding staying on the same place for too long. The Ursa was throwing wild swings trying to catch its attackers, but they were running too fast, eventually it started trusting its claws forward as in to crush them or stab them, once they landed, they generated small quakes and shattered the ground were they stroke, it went around as a good idea to not let that hit you.

Everyone kept running around avoiding the attacks and shooting at the ursa while shooting at it, Jack almost got caught by one of the but he spinted around and kept going, the Ursa suddenly felt something on his back, something that exploded, Aiden had trown a sticky explosive at it's back and detonateded it, the Ursa attacked at direction of the explosion on instinct, Aiden dived over the claw trust and kept running and shooting, then it recived two rockets from Cole who closed the distance after the rockets and deliver a punch that delivered a small electric explosion, after that he kept running, the Ursa tried to catch him with a swipe but Cole just jumped over it, Morgan came up with a superthermal trap and a kinetic blast, the Ursa got knocked backwards slightly burning, it didn't see her get close and shoot her shotgun at close range directly at the head, she kept rushing and avoided a giant swipe by sliding between it's legs, delivering another shotgun blast to it's stomach, the Ursa was about to turn when it got hit by one Jack's time blasts, immeditely Jack went for two punches and a kick at the head, he dashed away before the Ursa could swipe, soon Cole was trowing missile and grenades at it, the Ursa tried to maul him but Cole dodged and slashed at the creature's side with his blades, he rolled away from another claw trust, the Ursa didn't see Aiden coming from behind and sliding between it's legs shooting at it's jaw, the Ursa was standing on it's two legs from the shots, Aiden got up and started shooting and smacking with his baton it's left back leg, shooting at it and striking it's knee and backswinging abot three times before shooting again at the head, Aiden ducked a backhand swipe and striked twice at he Ursa's head, he spun around just in time to dive over a claw swipe, however he left two grenades behind, they exploded and stunned the Ursa, the Ursa itself was getting mad and started swinging madly, however soon it one of it's arms got stuck in a time bubble that Jack created, Aiden, Morgan and Jack shot at the bubble until it broke pushed the Ursa's arm aside, Jack dashed close and shot twice before dashing away and reloading, Morgan also came close and shot with her shotgun before phantom shifting away from a sloppy claw swipe, Cole came in shooting lightning bolts at it's head, along with a final rocket, Cole soon back flipped away from a claw trust and kept going, the Ursa Major was getting really tired and dizzy from this hit and run the group was doing, it was snarling quite loudly.

Aiden came back shotting at the bone masked head and striking it again before rolling away from another claw trust, the Ursa didn't saw Morgan and Jack climb on it's back a deliver several shots across it before jumping off, Morgan got away while Jack kept close and dashed towards the Ursa to punch it three times on the head with his time sprint, it got in it's two legs to try and swipe Jack but he ducked and punched it on the stomach and kicked its leg, Cole came into the fray with a flying kick to the head, together with Jack they started punching and kicking the Ursa, Jack with his time sprint and Cole with with his strikes that delivered electricity and small explosions while both were dodging and ducking swipes, trusts and strikes, Jack punch on the head with an uppercut and shot it before dashing away, Cole created a gigawatt blade and grazing its face, he then back flipped kicked on the jaw and got aay in time to avoid a massive bite, Aiden came back climbing the arm of the Ursa to get a clear shot at its head, after two shots he managed to get its eye, the Ursa roared and shived him away, Aiden fell but got up and rolled away from a massive groudpound, the Ursa felt a lightnig blast on its side, it was one of Morgan's, from a decent distance Cole was using what was left of the electric burst to power himself up alongside with Morgan, Jack was also at their side, gathering Chronon particles, together they attacked the Ursa, Cole with a rocket, Jack with a time blast and Morgan with a kinetic blast, the Ursa was hit hard on its left side from all the attacks and flew and rolled over the floor.

"Keep going for its left side!" Aiden shouted soon they were all back into action but the Ursa had had enough, with a mighty roar it stood on it's two back legs and started pounding the ground as soon as the group got close, it was making small quakes without stop, preventing them from getting close, it was also trying to go toward them at the same time, however they kept running around shooting at it, the Ursa started pounding the ground harder, it started pulling pieces at out of the floor and trowing them at them, everyone started dodging massive rocks of dirt that were coming at them, Morgan had to slide under a giant barage of debris the Ursa made by draging it's claw aroundthe floor, Aiden rolled away from a giant rock trown his way, same as Cole who also got rocks trown his way, Jack dashed past the boulders but almost got caught by one tossed in front of him, another rock was coming his, he stopped it mid flight with a time bubble and used another to freeze the Ursa's left arm before it could trow anything else, he and Morgan shot at the bubble breaking and damging its arm, it got furious and started trowing more rocks directly at them, it got so focused on Morgan and Jack that it forgot about Cole and Aiden.

"It's gotten pretty aggressive." Cole said to Aiden.

"It's left side still injured."

"We cannot really get close."

"Or try and shoot at it like this… we need to get rid of that arm." Aiden said pointing at the Ursa's left arm, it had parts basically torn off. "Think you can cut it?"

"… I'll need to get close."

"Then I'll make a distraction." Aiden said running back into the fight, Cole followed him and got ready for his time to strike.

As Jack and Morgan got away from the boulders and groundpounds Aiden moved in shooting, the Ursa trew a rock that Aiden rolled away from, he kept getting closer and shooting until he had to dive away from a ground pound, soon came another and Aiden fell on his back, the Ursa had a massive rock over it's arms and it was going to use it to crush Aiden, but just before the Ursa could bring it down Cole came in with a gigawatt blade in each arm, making big slices on the Ursa's arm, it dropped the rock just befoe Aiden, Aiden himself widened his eyes at how close it got and back away immediately, it let out a big scream of pain, however the arm was still attached.

" Shit." Cole let before shooting a Magnum bolt at the Ursa, the Ursa was going to make another ground pound but Aiden saw it coming.

"Jack! The arm!" Aiden yelled over, Jack did catch the idea and stuck the Ursa's arm in a time bubble, everyone with a gun shoot at the bubble and once the bubble broke, the arm came off. The Ursa started screaming and howling while flailing it's other arm around in pure rage and pain, it wasn't focusing on anything however, Cole and Jack kept it occupied shotting at it with bolts bullets and time blasts, staying a safe distance from the flailing.

Morgan came in to help Aiden get up. "Even without its arm it's not stopping." she said picking him up and bringing him to his feet.

"At least now it's not throwing rocks at us..." Aiden looked at the Ursa for a second, in all the flailing he spotted a hole on the top of it's back… it must have been done from the explosive and the shotgun shots from Jack and Morgan.

"You are thinking something right?"

"I have an idea… if only it would stop flailing."

At that Morgan got ready and released a psyschock blast that stunned the Ursa, she also clutched her head, using so many powers was taking its toll on her, Aiden looked at her with worry.

"Just go!" Morgan yelled at him, Aiden nodded and reloaded his gun.

"Make sure to get its leg!" Aiden shouted at her as he went towards the Ursa, Morgan stopped clutching her head and cocked her shotgun, she started to also go towards the Ursa.

The Ursa had falledn to its now three legs still stunned soon Aiden slid beneath the Ursa, shooting it at the head, forcing it in it's stunned state to it's two back legs, Aiden climbed the Ursa's back pulled out his baton and trust deep into the hole at the top of its spine, the Ursa howled loudly and tried to shake Aiden off but hehel on, Aiden made sure to get his baton at an angle and started pulling, forcing the Ursa to stay on its back legs, Jack and Cole continued to shoot at it mindfull to not hit Aiden with their blasts, Morgan came close and started working on the Ursa's left leg, after four shots it finally came off and the Ursa fell foward with Aiden still on it's back. Aiden pulled out his baton tearing apart some flesh and inside the hole he left a remote explosive, he hopped off and looked at he Ursa, it was whimpering and snarling still trying to flail its claw at the group, Aiden pulled out his phone and detonated the explosive, finally killing the Ursa, everyone covered their eyes from the explosion as small chunks came flying before finally dissipating on thin air, alongside with the rest of the Ursa.

"Akh… akh… he's dead… finally." Aiden said recovering his breath, everyone was more or less the same.

"Let's just… ahh… get away from here before something else comes..." Jack said, Cole used his radar pulse to see if there were any other monsters near.

"I don't sense anything near… but I agree either way."

"We should be careful… they are pitch black… they'll possibly try to ambush us from a dark spot..." Morgan said as she reloaded her guns.

"They must love the night then… we should start moving, get a safe distance away and camp until daytime, it would also do well to see what ammo we have left after all that." Aiden said to the group, everyone nodded and so Jack started leading the way to the path he came from, away from a place that didn't look much like nice clearing anymore.

* * *

 **A/N: Holy hell it took me more time to write this than it should… anyway, if you reached this far, welcome to New surroundings, a multi cross-over series staring the protagonists of Watch Dogs, Infamous, Quantum Break and Prey (2017). Now the reason I wanted to make this story… well started with Aiden and Cole, I really felt both of them weren't getting to much love on the crossover realm (mostly rwby… but it is true in other cases.) people tend to prefer Delsin or Marcus for this kind of thing, me personally I prefer Aiden alot more alongside with Cole and in regards to them... I tend to hate when people think that characthers from Watch Dogs can hack EVERYTHING in any universe even when CTOS DOESN'T EXIST on that world! It doesn't work that way! Another thing that I wanted to touch with Cole is how he's not exactly ovepowered, he is a power house but he has weaknesses beyond water, I'll also try to keep all the characthers balanced, I won't make them overpowered… regarding the others, because of rwby's rule of four, I decided to bring more people, took me a while to decide but it ended being both Jack from Quantum Break and female Morgan (thought the group could use a female and I like her design) from Prey, mostly because the crossovers for those games are pretty much non- existent, and I lke their powers and characthers.**

 **And so I came with this group of people that I thought could work well on the rwby universe, speaking of which as a general basis of what to expect, this fic will start 2 and half years before the events of Volume 1. We have two and half years to explore Remnant, right now they start in a forest near Mistral, just think what this group of people could do in two whole years.**

 **As far as anything else, I take any criticism regarding my writing style, the way I make fight scenes, if I portayed the charathers right and that kind of stuff, I can't promise consitent updates but I can do my best so this fic doesn't end unfinished like oh so many others, also don't expect chapters this long always, this lenght of chapter will mostly be for special chapters, critical ones and such… depends which point I want to reach on a chapter. Next chapter I'll also nerd over what each characther can do… and as a final note: Oufits!**

 **Aiden: Chicago south club outfit (the best looking one on the game.)**

 **Cole: His hero outfit from Infamous 2**

 **Jack: The grey t-shirt and jeans you can see him on at the end of the game.**

 **Morgan: Her red suit from the game.**

* * *

 **Small edit: Added some much needed separation lines and fixed some details and some hideous misspelling and grammatical errors, hopefully got rid of most of them... or the most glaring ones atleast. I blame it on me typing always fast and english nor being my native language. Next chapter hopefully will be up in the following weeks, just finishing finals so after those are over I'll have free time again, I'm also still open for reviews and suggestions.**


	2. 2: Bird's Eye View

**A/N: You want to know the beauty of FanFiction, if a story doesn't have the word "discontinued" or "adopted" in the title then chances are is not dead, nothing really is a dead fic on this site... Well… took me long enough... I didn't promise anything about this fic... BUT, to all that have followed and favorite so far, I think you deserve an apology for my laziness… I really have no excuse for this, but at the very least… I. Am. Not. Dead! And neither is this! Ha Ha! :)**

 **Just saying, I might have played a** _ **small**_ **part in pushing him to continue this story. -Genatools (Beta)**

 **It was of my own volition, don't know what you are talking about. -CrowSkull.**

 **On the bright side, ever since this updated I have gotten a lot better at writing so maybe we can pretend some horrible misspelling didn't actually happen… hopefully.**

* * *

Chapter 2: Birds Eye View

The group had traveled for about half an hour at a fast pace, constantly on guard in case any more of those dark creatures with the red eyes appeared. Eventually, they could see the mountain that Jack had talked about, it was more or less two to three hours of walking away from them. They decided it was a good time to set up camp when signs of fatigue showed up throughout the whole group. They settled themselves in a small glade in the middle of the forest, the place was mostly made of a large boulder that prevented any trees from growing in or around the area. After securing the area they gathered small rocks and some twigs, and branches for a campfire. Cole used his lightning powers to light up the fire. Meanwhile, Morgan, Jack, and Aiden looked around for something edible… which ended up being some berries they found in some bushes. It was something at least. Aiden had some experience in recognizing poisonous berries, having to look after Jack and Lena when they went fishing in Pawnee's lake, not many common berries are actually fatal to fully grown adult humans, but they are more along the line of side effects.

After tasting a few he deemed them safe to eat, and they gathered enough so that everyone could have at the very least have a light snack. They all returned to the campfire and everybody sat down near the flames.

Cole was against the boulder, Jack was sitting on the floor, Aiden pulled up against a rock that was nearby and pulled it near the fire to sit on, and Morgan was sitting on the floor with her legs crossed.

With nothing to really do besides eating berries, Aiden took the chance to ask for everybody's guns, he wanted to check how much ammunition and tools they had available just in case they ran into any trouble, everybody complied except for Cole who didn't have any real weapon besides his powers, and all the benefits included such as strength, agility, and faster natural healing. While Aiden counted all the magazines they had and filled half full ones the group took the chance to introduce themselves more fully… in a more or less brief manner.

Cole started first with his own story, with Empire city, how he was a bike messenger, how the blast occurred, how he fought his way through the devastation and chaos that plagued the streets against criminals and other people like him. From his world, he was classified as a Conduit. Next, he explained how he had to fight Moya and David, then John and the Ray Sphere. He told them of Kessler and the vision he left of The Beast, he told them how The Beast came and destroyed Empire city, of his time in New Marais as he gathered enough strength to use the RFI fighting monsters, the militia and the ice mercenaries, of the plague, of his choice to use the RFI.

"I thought it was for the best." Cole ended his story with a shake of his head.

"Killing thousands to save millions?" Aiden asked not really looking at him, more focused on his job of counting bullets. Cole pondered for second and released a sigh before answering.

"Yeah… many wouldn't know, but I couldn't let so many more die because of the plague, and John's plan, it wasn't really a solution… so yes, I killed the few to save the many." Cole confirmed softly.

"If it counts for something, you did the right thing, this John… he sounds like he was way too set on it, or maybe he had a delusion that he was the last hope of humanity." Aiden scoffed at the thought of it.

"Maybe..." Cole said as he thought of John, maybe not delusional but his powers certainly had done something to him, he was not the same as he was in Empire city, that was for sure. He just didn't know exactly _what_ changed.

"There wasn't really any real way to treat the plague though, was there any other way?" Morgan asked with a curious look, she had just unzipped the top half of her Transtar uniform, and was now tying it up around her waist, the suit was meant for space, Talos 1, and research facilities, not exactly meant for a hot dense forest, and it was annoying her. Plus she was also quite fed up with Transtar in general, underneath she had a simple white tank top that she also used in her sleep. She doesn't even remember when she put it on, and never really thought of taking it off or changing it.

"I'm pretty sure the government was looking into it, but time was running out, the fact that the militia was hoarding the medicine for themselves didn't help anything. Anyone I asked seemed pretty sure there was no cure… well except the RFI." Cole sighed.

"How fast was it spreading?" Jack asked from his spot.

"Really fast, New Marais wasn't the only city or state to have thousands infected and… who knows how many were already dead."

"Well shit." Jack muttered.

"Yeah..."

"And so... the plague is cured…? And The Beast is dead?" Aiden asked

"I hope so… I really hope so… I didn't really get to see The Beast die with my own eyes. I can only keep faith that what I did really worked."

"If all conduits were supposed to die, then how are you still around?" Morgan asked, and was about to continue her questioning before Cole interrupted her.

"I don't know, who knows we could all be dead really… I thought I was dead, until well, you all probably have the same problem as me." everyone remained quiet for a moment, Aiden even stopped his work of counting, changing and filling magazines, he continued soon after though, eventually it was Jack the one who broke the ice.

"Look, I know that it's probably not even close to being easy to understand but… well here we are, all the same, we all could be dead or not, you choose what you wanted to do… and I don't know about you but… I feel like things in my end changed. My connection to the infinite is severed, and I felt a shifter that I was fighting die, just as I was brought here… I can still feel it, he's no more, for The Beast it must be the same… and the plague."

"Yeah… maybe I'm not really sure but… we'll go with that, heh… who knows, it might actually be true… still... then why am I here right now?" Cole asked.

Jack shrugged. To be fair, no one really had an answer for that one.

"Yeah, great answer." Cole rolled his eyes.

"Best one you are gonna get Mister Demon from Empire city." Aiden said not looking away from his work.

"Huh… so you actually have jokes." Cole noted.

"...Sometimes." Aiden paused for a second to say that, but got right back to work the next second.

"Heh… gotta say, I'll give you a four out of ten but… with a little work… you might be able to make someone smile."

Aiden merely snorted while he continued his work, the others were merely content with Cole being a bit less down, although they all knew best that none of them knew for sure what was going on, and even if things ended alright on their ends.

"I still hope so… and I still have more questions… like what happened to my powers." Cole pondered.

"What happened? They seem to be doing alright." Morgan asked from her spot.

"My electrokinesis seems to be doing okay, electromagnetism too… the thing is my cryokinesis… my ice powers… they seem to just not work anymore." Cole said as he paced around trying to use them, nothing came out however.

"I mean are you sure they aren't working, I mean if you need to absorb electricity like some human battery, wouldn't you need ice for that other thing too?" She inquired.

"Nah… not really, I just need electricity, and I'm sure. I've tried using them in both on you." he said pointing at both Jack and Aiden. "They don't seem to respond."

"Has that ever happened before?" Aiden not even looking up from his work.

"With my powers in general? Only once, when The Beast almost killed me."

"Hmm… maybe you did die, for a bit at least, just like Jack said."

"Yeah, maybe… which I would like to know more about." Cole said at Jack who was eating away his pile berries. He whistled to get his attention when he didn't seem to notice that it was his turn to speak.

"Sorry, what?" was Jack's response as soon as he swallowed a mouthful of berries.

"You said you seemed sure to have killed a guy… or a… shifter as you called it, so, what's the story behind that?" Cole asked Jack as he stood against the boulder.

"It does seem like our best lead in whether we died or not." Morgan said, Jack looked at both of them, then at Aiden who was also looking at him although not saying anything, they were all expecting his story now.

"I'll try to tell the story as best I can." Jack said preparing himself.

Jack began telling his story of how he came back to Riverport to help his friend Paul and, then the chaos that ensued along with their attempt of using the time machine. How he saw his brother "die" and later tried to get revenge against the future Paul, it was more or less easy to follow, at least until Jack reached the point of trying to explain Ground Zero. From there it got confusing, he did have to make multiple stops to explain how time travel supposedly worked, about the closed loop, and so on, Morgan got increasingly curious and Jack tried to explain the best he could the whole phenomenon and later the fracture of time, he even went back to the egg metaphor… which didn't work at all…

Jack continued to explain the following events and explaining the timeline as best he could, still, he ended with multiple questions, such as; Was that the present or the past? How many years was Beth in the past? How did she and Paul get to the past? How did Will survive? How did that play into the close loop dilemma? And so on… he later explained his fight with Paul, the days after the first stop of time, his Chronon syndrome, and later Hatch.

"That's the explosion I talked about in my case, and well for your information that's a shifter." Jack explained simply.

"So basically a superpowered, hive mind individual turned into a monster that's also a time traveler and has powers to alternate time and it's flow… I gotta say sounds pretty cool." Cole said thinking about it.

"I mean, on paper it would sound cool until you fight one, those bastards will make you feel pain you can't even imagine." Jack said.

"It did put you on basically a… furnace… from what you've said." Aiden said absentmindedly. He would admit though, he didn't fancy the idea of trying to face a shifter, even if he could more or less face Jack.

"Interesting… and the explosion of Chronon particles didn't affect you?" Morgan said, being really attentive, of all the details, even if the whole phenomenon wasn't her specialty, it was still interesting.

"Well… it didn't, but maybe, I don't know. I risked everything there with that move and I… I don't know really, for all intents and purposes I should have died… maybe... I don't know, Chronon has acted differently depending on who receives it and also how… I did free myself from that hive mind after all."

"Hmm… still interesting..." Morgan said.

"However it doesn't bring any answers." Cole said looking at Jack, he didn't have a hostile tone though, just a soft disappointment.

"I'm sorry." Jack said

"It's not your fault… none of us I think really have an answer." Aiden said as he looked at the fire, he had finished the job of counting and filling by now, he was now just looking at the fire thinking on the stories so far.

"Are you done yet?" Cole asked looking at Aiden.

"Yes… but since we are talking about something else at the moment..."

"Huh… right." Cole said, there was a brief pause in the air, a brief silence that was broken by Jack.

"If knew more… or if I could guarantee you I know fully… I would… the only thing I really know is that in my end, things changed, and that means that maybe, things changed for you too."

"I know, all I can do.. heh, all _we_ can do is hope." Cole said.

"Yeah..."

"If things are normal in your end… think your brother will be okay?" Morgan asked.

"Will?… He'll be okay, he was always able to pull through, he'll find a way." Jack explained

"Didn't you say that he had… invested a lot of years into the time machine?… and that countermeasure? What he'll do now?" Aiden asked

"Well yeah that's true, but with all the shitstorm that must be going around Monarch, he will be able to find a spot, and a way to climb through the ranks, I pity his coworkers though."

"Heh… Monarch is still going to be in business after all that has happened?" Morgan asked

"I bet, they'll find a way to weasel out of whatever… bad reputation they might have, they were already doing it with Hatch, they'll do it again."

"Helps they didn't exactly do anything wrong." Morgan cut in.

"How about setting up an entire witch hunt for me!" Jack retorted.

"I meant to the eyes of the public." Morgan responded with a shrug.

"They framed me as a terrorist!"

"Join the club." Cole and Aiden said in unison, Jack was rather bemused, yes he knew that being framed was something that happened not only to him… but still… they said it like it was something usual, he looked at Morgan too to see if that was also true for her, she took notice.

"I'm not part of that club, never exactly been framed, just been screwed over..." She said.

Jack on his part was still a little surprised, he knew they were right, and is not like his normal life had been fucked, he would've survived somehow, still not cool... but then again by comparison Cole had been framed ever since Empire, labeled as a freak or even as The Devil himself. Jack knew that now and in all honesty, Cole seemed to be doing fine, he was also somewhat of a hero of the people, so he managed to prove those who framed him or blamed him wrong but in the end, it cost him his life, and Aiden… actually what about Aiden?

"Umm... okay I know about you." he said pointing at Cole. "But you… What's the story behind… well, you know… you being hunted." Jack asked him.

"Well I've been a pain in the ass for Blume, gangs, criminals and fixers for more than a year now." Aiden said.

"Blume?" Jack asked

"Fixers?" Morgan also asked

"Sounds like you are popular." Cole commented

"More or less, well since it looks like it is my turn, I'll explain."

Aiden talked about his life as a thief and a hacker, recently been made all the more easy thanks to CTOS, he also told them why he did it, to provide for his family, even if admittedly it wasn't really the best choice, but it was what he chose to do, he told them about how CTOS worked. An entire city monitored and run by one unique system, one that also had a pretty large list functions that aren't known to the public, such as connection to your personal devices, recording of all your actions, collection of information about you and your family, and also use of that information for more than just advertisement or promotion of new trends.

They would sell that information to the highest bidder behind your back without even blinking, they would use you… using every single bit of data and shift the entire city for whatever their goal was and make you part of it without even making you realize it, they wouldn't give a damn about your personal information or your well begin, even when they promised and gave a bullshit slogan about how "CTOS is all about you and your security." and "We do this for you."

Jack and Morgan pointed quickly that it wasn't much different from how their worlds handled information and monitoring, what was different, however, was how centralized and all involving CTOS was, such as controlling infrastructure and data with just one system, yes surveillance 24/7 was a thing, but it didn't really affect anything beyond making sure people didn't break the law or went against the government, Blume, however, having control to all that gave it another layer, and the way they handled it behind curtains wasn't better either, they did some good, but all the lies, manipulation, deals with criminals, and just the way they sold the information about people to whoever wanted it outweighed whatever good they had done.

In the end, it was another way for a big company to make money, and for people with power to get what they wanted, and for the people at the top of Blume to ensure themselves a position of far more power than they should really have. Aiden explained as briefly as he could, for what really mattered was what happened at the Merlaut job, how Damien went farther than he really should have gone for the sake of adventure in a job that was far too dangerous for that. How it cost him his niece… how he went out for revenge and in turn, became a vigilante, the sudden change from thief to vigilante was a bit odd at first, but it felt good.

Aiden admitted that he himself felt like he was making a difference protecting people, if he could help it, he wouldn't let what happened to Lena happen to others, he wouldn't let more innocents suffer as he and his family had. In honor of Lena, he also stopped his own criminal activities when they weren't absolutely necessary, maybe it was a way to vent out, maybe it was controversial, and he knew it and so explained… but he made enough peace with himself after a while, he was a man of family, one who would protect it at all costs and in turn he would also protect others. He was a guardian, and it gave him more purpose than he thought possible, he had found his calling.

He explained briefly how the events of his last year went, hiring Jordi Chin, getting in contact with Clara and later Damien, the kidnapping of his sister, finding the bunker and after that T-Bone, the assault against Iraq and the Viceroys, Defalt…his farewell to his family, his revenge on Lucky Quinn, Clara's death and how he killed Damien. After that there wasn't much to talk about, he said that he spent most of his time stopping criminals of all sorts and started getting back at Blume for all they've done, then he got to Blume's research center, his own explosion… and so how he was here.

"So that's it huh." Cole asked at Aiden.

"Yeah… no crazy powers, experiments or magic or… anything, just a guy with a gun and a tool to control a city." Aiden said bringing out his phone… it wasn't really useful in the middle of nowhere, and he didn't have any signal on top of that.

"Once again, that whole CTOS system, it's not much different from how it is in my… time, world whatever." Jack commented.

"But still, different enough, not even where I'm from it's that centralized." Morgan said.

"True, a proper Big brother right there." Jack said back towards Aiden.

"Basically… still it had its flaws and holes here and there." Aiden said.

"Well by the looks of it, and that grid you mentioned, that how those fixers organized?" Cole asked.

"Yup… a bunch of assassins, thieves, hackers, goons, thugs, hired guns and such, nothing really new there, just a more mainstream or organized way to do their job, it also was a way for them to work together better… it was also more simple than "the guy who knows a guy who knows a guy." and it also meant that there were a lot of young people in it, recent professionals and such… just thugs that put themselves for hire."

"Sound like some modern wild west movie." Cole said with a soft chuckle.

"Well if you delve too deep into it, yes." Aiden agreed… it very much was.

"Huh... sounds interesting." Jack said.

"There was a point where the city was basically plagued by it." Aiden said.

"Wait… really?" Jack asked

"Yeah well… a big part of crime reduction is thanks to me." Aiden said with more than a bit pleasure of that fact.

"Ah, proud of that aren't you?" Morgan asked.

"… Yeah, any reason I shouldn't be?" Aiden asked back with a slight of a glare, but Morgan responded with a quiet laugh.

"Not at all, just pointing something out." Morgan said with a smile, Aiden kept a straight face, but did smirk for a second.

"Well… what do you think, are things where you are going to be okay?" Jack asked as he ate another berry.

"They should be… they don't need me that much." Aiden said sounding a bit more… somber.

"Is your sister going to be okay with you disappearing?" Cole asked

"She might never know." Aiden said.

"No?" Cole said surprised.

"After I got them out of the city… I broke all sorts of communication with them, I wouldn't know where they would go, I wouldn't really know anything… that way people wouldn't find them through me… and that way I wouldn't put them in more danger."

"You could have just looked from a distance..." Morgan said looking at Aiden, he suddenly had a really grim expression on his face.

"I could have… I always had the urge to search for them, to see if they were okay, but then I'd've turned their world upside down again, I couldn't do that to them… not anymore, they didn't deserve it." Aiden said as he quietly ate from his own pile of berries, his expression still somber.

"I'm sorry." Cole said

"Yeah..." Jack joined in.

"It was for the best… besides, Nicky is my sister, she'll survive and take care of Jacks one way or the other."

"If she's anything like you, I believe so." Jack said, Aiden himself grew a small smile at the thought.

"It's also good you didn't have a toxic relationship with your family… it's not nice." Morgan commented

"Well, we had discussions, but nothing toxic… you though, sounds like you have experience." Aiden said facing at her looked back at Aiden and later at Cole and Jack… they were all looking at her.

"You _are_ the last one remaining." Cole said

"Well… okay then… I'll try my best, I guess." Morgan said just before she began.

And so she started explaining her own situation, she started talking about how her version of the Earth worked and what she was doing, which in a way was research on aliens, how did humanity reach that far in just a few extra years… she had to admit the worlds of the other sounded really different, well… she started explaining the golden days of the space race after the attempted assassination of President Kennedy… and that's when she received the bombshell, something that for her history was an attempted but failed assassination… for the other three was, in fact, a successful assassination, they all came from a world where Kennedy did die, she and all the others got their answers about how things were so different, it was the death (or survival) of one man, but one that marked history.

She continued on with what Transtar was trying to accomplish, the creation and perfection of neuromods, the way to expand the potential of your brain she explained how they worked and how one was supposed to use Neuromods, she then started talking about-

"Wait, wait, wait… you used those "Neuromods"… by injecting them into your eye?!" Jack asked more than a little… surprised, and maybe a little scared.

"Directly in your eye!?" Cole joined in pointing at his own eye, also a little stupefied.

"Is that why your eye is so red?" Aiden asked, he wasn't as affected but he was surprised.

"… Well… Yes, yes and yes." Morgan said.

"Are you serious?!" Both Jack and Cole asked again still both in disbelief and uneasiness.

"Yeah..."

"Why though?!" Jack asked

"Who's idea was that anyway?!" Cole asked too.

"Look, it's not that bad, okay? it's perfectly fine."

"It's a needle through your eye!" Both Cole and Jack said.

"It comes with an anesthetic, it doesn't hurt in the slightest!" Morgan argued.

"Still!" Both of them said in unison again.

"I know… but- still, it's perfectly fine, it's completely safe and was made so no injuries occur." She tried to reassure them. " _Or_ any brain damage." She felt the need to add.

"What about your eye then, that doesn't exactly look fine to me." Jack said as he waves his hand towards her, she indeed know that her left was quite red, but it wasn't dangerous an actual concern or a detriment for her body in any way.

"That's just the injections, besides any redness should go away fairly quickly, mine has only lasted so long because of the number of Neuromods I've had to use."

"How many needles _have_ you put in through your eyes?" Cole asked more than a little worried, Jack had also some small traces of fear on his face, meanwhile, Aiden just sat there silently, if slightly wide eyed.

"Umm… uh… I uh..." She actually didn't really know, she lost count, she wasn't about to say that though, however, the others more or less guessed that she didn't remember how many or that she didn't want to tell, both Jack and Cole sat there with their mouths open in disbelief. "I uh… stopped counting at thirty-seven."

"Oh my God…" Cole said, his jaw still hanging low.

"Look… it's still fine… look I can show how it works… I have one of the injectors still, I can show you how it works if you want." She said as she took out a spare Neuromod and prepared to operate it.

"What!?… No!" Jack alarmed, moving away slightly.

"I don't feel like watching it." Cole said as he raised one of his hands to cover his eyes.

"Relax I won't use it, I don't have any actual neuromods anyway, I'll just show you." She pulled out a small device with something that looked like the spot for eye of a binocular, it was quite small and didn't exactly look menacing, didn't look smooth either though, Cole and Jack still didn't like the idea, Aiden just watched curiously.

"It's perfectly fine, see, this little injector helps so that even if you have shaky hands, you still won't do damage to your eye, and the anesthetic helps so that you really don't feel a thing." She explained.

"Well… at least it's kind of small... I guess." Cole said

"I suppose..." Jack said looking back at Cole, and barely looking at Morgan from the corner of his eye.

"As I said, it's fine." Morgan said showing the injector, she then pushed the trigger that released the needles to show them the actual needles… needles that were really thin, but that had the length of a fork or a kitchen knife, Cole and Jack put faces of just pure terror, and Aiden visibly winced.

"Yeeaaah… no, no, no, just no, screw all of that." Jack said, backing away even further.

"Yeah… no, I'll pass, seriously, what the actual fuck." Cole said with a shiver.

"I don't really feel… inspired to use one of those." Aiden said at Morgan, she knew they were harmless but, even she couldn't deny that… she has gotten used to it but...

"It's perfectly fine, like I've said it's harmless… it's really just..." Morgan couldn't find the words to describe what she had on her mind.

"Harmless?!… Do you see the size of those?" Cole said waving at the injector still with a face of slight terror. "I mean who thinks _that's_ a good idea!"

"Why do they need to be that long anyway… couldn't they at least be like short tiny needles, then I could actually consider it." Jack said, still with a face of pure terror on his features.

"They need to be that long so that they can reach the brain." Morgan answered, only making it worse for them.

"I… I didn't… need to hear that." Jack said looking away holding his temples, he never felt more attached to his brain than he did now.

"Yeah neither did I, like I've said before, I'll pass." Cole said again waving his hand from side to side as in denial, Aiden didn't say anything but he slightly shivered at the idea of really long needles reaching one's brain.

"Okay fine… I'll just continue with the story then." She said as she put the needle device of terror back in her pockets.

"That would be for the best." Jack said as both him and Cole recollected themselves back to normal.

She started talking about the actual experiments that occurred in Transtar, and also the big problem of neuromods, the memory loss when removing one, she also told them where the materials for the neuromods came from, the Typhon. She spoke briefly of them, and also assured them they weren't the monsters they were facing wherever they were now, she told them about her previous life, how she was a head researcher and also pretty much the boss of the project alongside her brother, how she voluntarily went through the experiments and the "First day loop to try multiple neuromods", but also how it became more… shady, how the process or recovering memory started being overlooked… how her past self started getting paranoid, how she started putting her thoughts and goals in robots, how she got stuck on the loop.

How she wasn't now Morgan, but how she wasn't somebody else… she was Morgan, but she wasn't, how also the Typhon broke containment and ever since then it was a fight for survival and a race to try and make things right, she also told them how her powers worked, in truth they were abilities extracted from aliens, the Typhon, mostly offensive, some defensive and some utilitarian abilities besides other abilities like increased strength and some knowledge in weapons, engineering and cybersecurity and also her own pool of energy for her abilities.

She told them of most things that happened, what she found in the different labs, how her parents send someone to kill them, how she helped the survivors escape, how she tried to save the station and give the neuromods a chance, how she saved her brother, her final fight with the nightmare… and how she exploded.

"That's how I ended here..." She finished explaining.

"Huh… so aliens, crazy experiments and space… all ending with one big bang" Cole murmured

"Sounds like quite a ride." Jack said following Cole on his statement.

"And a bunch of experiments that drove people mad." Aiden said.

"It was all for a cause… we thought we could handle it." Morgan said with her head low.

"A cause with a lot of live subjects, some unwilling at that… prisoners." Aiden remarked.

"I… I don't know… I can't remember if I knew, if I didn't, if I suggested it… if… If I even cared… I just thought I could make it so that it all wasn't for nothing, Neuromods don't really need humans for their making… there could have been another way..."

"Think you did the right thing?" Aiden asked her, her head still hanging low.

"… I don't know… maybe… I don't even know how to judge myself."

"Don't then."

"Huh?" Morgan looked directly at Aiden this time as he explained.

"It's like you've said, you aren't really the old Morgan Yu anymore, neither someone else, you are just…. A new Morgan Yu."

"You can't really judge your past self like it was you, neither can we, you are someone new, someone that seems to care far more." Cole added.

"Heh, right… yeah..." Morgan was in all honesty a bit more relieved now, it was true, she was someone else now, someone in a different world now, she thought of all of this she looked at the shattered moon.

"Thinking of something else… you've said something about particular powers… like ones you've used for more utility… I'm curious, like what exactly?" Jack asked. Morgan pondered what to show, she found her answer when she looked around and found a small rock, it could fit in her hand basically, in one quick motion her body shifted into a black mass as she quickly turned into an exact copy of the same rock.

"Okay..." Jack said, slightly surprised, they were all the more surprised when the rock started to move and jump around.

"Holy shit!" Jack said now genuinely surprised and amused, truth be told a tiny rock jumping around in such a lively way was kind of adorable.

"That is something." Cole said from his spot.

"Huh… what do you use that for?" Aiden asked intrigued. Morgan turned back to her human form and started talking after recovering her normal senses.

"I uh… I've used that hide from the aliens, surprised them, crawl through small spaces and find other ways to move around, mimicry came… well from the mimics, the first stage of growth of any Typhon, they'll mimic objects of the environment to hide and try to attack you… I just that same trick and return the favor."

"Sounds pretty useful actually." Jack commented.

"And you can just turn into whatever is close?" Cole asked.

"Uh… no, just small objects, I can't really turn into big or massive objects… or anything complicated like something with circuits… I don't really have that ability, and if I tried it would end with more than just a lot of energy wasted and a head-splitting migraine."

"Well, still useful." Jack said again.

"Yeah..." Morgan said.

After a brief silence Aiden broke the silence as he was stretching his arms and bringing all the weapons back to sight.

"Okay, that's all the introductions done now comes our inventory… and we don't really have much."

"Really?" Jack asked.

"Besides being stuck in a forest with dark monsters with little to no food… well ammunition wise we are also pretty spent, we possibly threw away more than we should have…"

"How bad are we actually talking about?" Morgan asked Aiden.

"Well, the good news is that we all use pistols and shotguns… well except for Cole over there." Aiden said as he waved at Cole sitting against the boulder.

"It's not like I could even use them." At that he got strange looks from the others but he explained. "It's my powers, whenever I try to hold a gun the gunpowder just makes the gun blew up in my hand."

"Huh… good to know, never tossing you a gun." Aiden said to him.

"I mean if you want to keep them, but yeah, that would be best." Cole said.

"Well, anyways… fortunately Monarch and, apparently also the possible future use both standard ammunition for their weapons, so 9mm and 12 gauge, together with me, Jack and Morgan have around seven mags for my pistol, five for Morgan's and six for Jack's."

"So yours conveniently has more?" Jack asked.

"Well every single pistol has a different size for the magazine, and also like I've said, I'm just a guy with a gun and explosives, nothing else really."

"That's... true enough."

"I can make do with that." Morgan said.

"Hmm..." Jack murmured

"Well… shotgun shells is another story however, I barely ever used the D12… that's the shotgun I gave back there Jack."

"Uh huh."

"It was just my backup really, but I was always carrying enough shells for a long fight, and it seems like Morgan also had enough for that."

"My shotgun was always a heavy hitter against the Typhon." She said as she uploaded her trusty shotgun.

"Well, the end result is that we still have a decent amount of shells… we have ninety-two shells in total."

"Oh damn..." Jack said

"Yeah, well since that's the case we are going to have to see who gets what then..." Aiden said as he loaded the D12. "With the lever it's a lot faster, put the shell in quickly, pull in the other direction and you are ready once again." he said directly said at Jack as he loaded the shotgun in a really quick motion, then after that he held the gun by the barrel and offered it to Jack, who didn't really expected something like this.

"… Excuse me but… are you sure about this?" Jack asked.

"You seemed to be doing well with it, I've said it, it was my back up, I don't really use it." Aiden said nonchalantly.

"Against these guys though… you could use something with a bit of a punch, you said it, "guy with just a gun" and all that."

"I've been doing fine without it, besides, it seems to fit you." Aiden said again.

"A kind of rushing in and rushing out… with the way you use those time powers, seems good to me, those ice mercenaries I talked about, some of them did that, I'll tell you, it hurts." Cole said to Jack

"And as he said, it suits you." Morgan added. Jack honestly was a little unsure, but he accepted the offer in the end.

"You know, I really liked the way it felt, the Monarch shotgun always had too much spread to be actually fucking effective heh… this however, I can get used to this guy." he said as he looked at the weapon and tested the lever for himself.

"You can have "him" alongside you own burst fire pistol." Aiden said as he looked towards the pile of ammo he had next to him, getting ready to decide how to do the split of shells, however, Jack cut him short on his actions.

"Actually I think you should keep that pistol, it packs a punch… even if it means wasting ammo but, maybe you'll know how to use it better than me." Aiden looked at both Cole and Morgan before accepting the offer, they both gave shrugs in way of saying "it isn't a bad idea" and "go ahead".

"Okay then." Aiden finally said, he then grabbed the magazine for both his pistols and stored them on his jacket.

"Here you go." He said as he passed Morgan her pistol, her shotgun and her share of the pistol ammo.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, now, how do we divide the shells?" Aiden asked both of them.

"I have both pistol and shotgun, I don't need that many shells, my powers also give more options."

"Now don't oversell yourself, you might have some interesting powers right, but you don't have the answer for everything." Cole said

"I can hold my own..." she said, a little indignated.

"But as far as I remember, your powers don't allow you to just absorb bullets like the other two here." Aiden said to her.

"Still hurts a lot…" Jack grumbled, meanwhile Morgan had a pout on her face, but she knew Aiden was right, she will admit, she wasn't as resilient as any of them if she actually took hits. It was right that her shotgun saved her from more Typhon than she could remember… in the long run, she would possibly need the shells, but not as much as Jack now that a shotgun was the only weapon he'll have.

"Okay fine… I'll need some, but not as much as Jack will need."

"We can agree on that, so what you think would be best, I don't think and even split." Aiden said looking at the shells.

"I think a forty sixty would be alright… I think both of us could work with." Said Morgan.

"So about uh… thirty-six and-"

"Fifty-six, is that going to be enough for you?" She asked.

"That would be more than enough actually, I still have my powers, and I can still punch them hard and fast enough." Jack said.

"It's decided then." Cole said as he stood up.

"Yup." Aiden also joined, then he divided the shells and gave them correspondingly to Morgan and Jack, Morgan stored hers on the pockets of her suit, meanwhile, Jack stored his on his pockets and the pouch that Aiden gave him, once everyone had everything set, Aiden continued on.

"Well that's bullets accounted for, I still have two grenades and one remote explosive also."

"Ah, so you still have some those." Cole said.

"Yeah, the last of them… they could come in handy if we find some other big thick skinned fuck." Aiden said.

"Hopefully we won't." Cole hoped.

"Well if we do… or even if don't we should take whatever comes next together, we really can't afford to waste bullets… or energy in the case of some." Morgan said.

"We stick together, we fight together, and we think about how to best fight them… basically focus them to take them down easier, especially if they are the big guys." Cole summarized.

"Well at this point goes without saying." Jack said.

"Good… well there's still something else." As he said he pulled out a round object and faced directly at Morgan who also looked at his direction, she also realized what the object was. "This was among the things you gave with all the weapons."

"That's a recycler charge..." Aiden moved the charge around as in a way for her to explain. "It's basically a grenade, however, it's different instead of shrapnel, what it'll do is that it'll make a small field that's like a black hole."

"That's a pretty big difference." Jack said as he ate another berry.

"It will absorb any matter that's caught in the blast and turn into raw materials… that's the reason for the name."

"How dangerous are we talking here?" Aiden asked

"It can tear apart any lone person, maybe even a larger group, and anything that isn't bolted to the ground or connected to something else, even if whatever is trying to absorb is too big, it'll still tear pieces of it, maybe leave a large hole, I've used them to clear stacks of obstacles as big as that boulder." At that they all got a bit wide eyed, the boulder wasn't small by any means.

"So it could completely suck up that boulder?" Jack asked pointing at it.

"Not all of it, there would definitely be some pieces left, the larger the object, the harder it is for it."

"So it's possibly our strongest weapon, one use of it at that..." Aiden pondered looking at the charge.

"Even if I had the materials for one, I doubt I could make another one without the stations to make one."

"Hmm..." Aiden looked at the charge for a brief second, then held it at Morgan as to hand it to her. "You are the one who knows how to use them, I trust you'll know when to use it" Morgan took the charge and made sure to store it safely.

"Don't worry, I'll know… and also you don't have to worry about going off by accident, it has a lot of locks to prevent that."

"Good."

"Well, that's all the weapons we have right?" Cole asked

"All bullets counted, everything sorted out, we don't really have anything else here besides the berries."

"Which are pretty good by the way." Jack said as he ate another one.

"You haven't really stopped eating them."

"Can you blame me?"

"No, but anyways we don't really have anything else of note." Aiden said.

"So now we just have to go up that mountain and see what we can spot." Cole said.

"Basically." Aiden said.

"So… what are looking for?" Jack asked as he kept eating his berries.

"Anything, hopefully something like a town, a city on the distance, a road, an abandoned shack… anything human-made or akin to civilization." Morgan said.

"And if we don't find any of those?" Jack asked, they all knew there was a chance that they could find nothing.

"Then… we'll go whatever way seems more promising." Morgan answered.

"Like whatever way seems to be safer?"

"Or at the very least has food… or that looks like it could have food, we'll see when get there." Cole said

"Okay then." There was a pause then, with just the sound of the fire crackling, Aiden spoke next.

"We should really get some sleep, I don't think we have many hours before sunrise."

"I guess we should take turns on watch then?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah..." Aiden said.

"I'll pick first." Cole said as he stood up.

"Are you sure?" Jack asked

"Eh… never really needed much sleep anyways, so maybe an hour or so, and then I'll wake... who?"

"I'll take second." Morgan offered, raising her hand.

"I pick third then." Jack added soon after.

"Then I'll get last… very well, if that's okay with you Cole." Aiden asked.

"Pfft… don't worry." Cole walked off to the edge of the glade where the forest began, his hands did twitch however, a reflex of his when he was off the grid, it didn't go unnoticed by Aiden however, Morgan noticed too.

"You look at him as if you didn't trust him?" Morgan said towards Aiden, Jack didn't pay attention as he got himself comfortable to sleep.

"I'm not exactly in a position to not trust him, but it's not that, his hands keep twitching." He said as he stood up from the rock and found a spot to lay on the grass with his hands behind his head.

"Oh… that might be his powers."

"Maybe, we'll see, for now get some sleep, you are second watch after all."

"Right..." Morgan started to lay down the best way for her to get some amount of sleep.

* * *

They all arrived at the mountain the following morning, they left the camp at the first sign of the dark sky brightening, once they reached they started climbing up as the sun started to rise, it was still early, the sun wasn't quite over the horizon just yet, they estimated that they reached the mountain at maybe between six and seven in the morning. The climb itself wasn't difficult, the mountain had pretty easy to follow path to the top, even once the slopes of grass and dirt became steeper and the terrain became rocks with hard ledges, even as the climb becomes steeper, the four of them were skilled climbers, able to traverse without much difficulty, some were faster than others however.

Morgan and Jack kept a good pace, going from ledge to ledge with ease, however they couldn't really climb up flat surfaces fast enough compared to their other companions, Aiden himself was faster than them, not only was he faster but more skilled and experienced, he was capable of climbing steep areas with ease and he was also smart, he used every ledge and wall to propel himself up in with small jumps and upwards, he did make sure that Jack and Morgan were following behind him, they were quite close, some meters down but doing okay… and then there was Cole...

"Are they doing okay down there?" Cole called towards Aiden who was the closest to his position.

"Yeah, they are okay."

"Well if that's the case I'll keep going..." Cole said before continuing

He was a couple of meters upper than Aiden, and was mostly because he was making sure not to leave them behind, surprisingly the more steep the mountain became, the faster Cole was able to climb, he was agile and a skilled climber before getting his powers and after he could climb flat surfaces with little to no problem as long as there was at least something to grab, he jumped upwards in big jumps and grabbed small ledges to push himself in more jumps in a really fast and smooth fashion, climbing vertically he was the faster of the four… they were already nearing the top, a couple more meters and they would be up.

"Uh… okay, we are here no need to babysit us." Jack said as he and Morgan reached climbed up the ledge Aiden was on.

"Noted."

"Where's Cole?" Morgan asked looking around.

"Moving up, shouldn't be much more at any rate."

"Bastard's gonna leave us behind at this point." Jack said

"Well he's been taking care not to so far..." As if it was on cue, they could now see Cole climbing one of the more steep sides of the mountains going for the top, they saw him climb about ten meters up in less than ten seconds.

"Okay now he's just showing off..." Aiden said as he was looking at Cole.

"How does he do that?" Jack asked a bit bewildered, Morgan for her part just shrugged as her answer.

"Okay, come on, let's go before he starts waiting for us with his feet kicked up."

"Agreed." "Yup." Morgan and Jack said respectively as the three of them started to climb up again, with new vigor and if possible even faster, Morgan even used one of her powers, the Lift field to help them move up faster. They reached the top of the mountain in little time and found Cole looking over the rocks to the top of the mountain itself.

"Oh... you are here, gonna be honest, I thought it would take you a lot longer to get up here." Cole said as he looked back at the three, sitting on one of the rocks and wearing an amused expression on his face.

"Sorry to disappoint." Aiden replied.

Cole snorted.

"Well it's actually good we are all here together now."

"Why? What's going on up here?" Jack asked, Cole nodded towards the area he looking at previously, the four of them peered over the rocks to see the top, the peak ended completely flat, making it look like a massive platform, it was completely made of stone, towards the edge it had a smaller taller peak made of rocks, the rest of the area was flat, not perfectly however, it had some rocks and some big branches scattered around in no particular order, it looked like a nest, a really basic and simple one at that, but it was enough to look like one, and there they saw big black smoking feathers alongside the rocks and branches.

"Those feathers… they are like the skin and fur of the werewolves. Just as black as them too." Morgan said in a hushed tone.

"And also the bear..." Jack said in whispers.

"This must be a bird type then, of whatever creatures we've been dealing with." Aiden added.

"It must be big however… maybe like the bear if we look at the size of the feathers alone." Morgan said.

"That Bear was like the size of a house… more or less." Jack said directly at Morgan.

"Precisely."

"I haven't seen it whatever it looks like… in all the time up here and also going up it doesn't seem to have shown up."

"So we just assume it isn't home?" Jack asked at Cole.

"What we must assume is that it could come back at any moment..." Aiden said as he stepped back and pulled out his gun. "… so we must be ready." Everyone agreed in a silent nod, Jack and Morgan also pulled out their guns and Cole crackled lightning in his hand for a brief second.

"So… we go look over the edge, try to see where to go and just… bailout?" Cole asked.

"Hopefully… I'll rather not fight something that can fly..."

"It is annoying..." Morgan said, the guys looked at her for a second and then at each other, they shrugged and got ready once again.

"Let's go then." Jack said.

Soon after they were all walking slowly on the nest looking for a good spot to look over, the peak at the other side would be enough, they walked together and on guard, looking for any sign of the host or owner of the nest, there wasn't any sound other than howls of the wind and their own steps, nothing seemed to give signs of danger however, they were expecting it however they reached the other side of the top soon enough.

"Think we might get lucky?" Cole asked Morgan who was next to him.

"Maybe… just maybe."

"We should be able to see a couple miles around from up here, maybe more." Aiden said as he started to climb the peak of rocks to get a better look.

"Think we'll find something?" Jack asked at Aiden.

"Let's just hope so." They all climbed and reach the top of the peak and started to look around.

"Back there is were we came from… there doesn't seem to be anything but forest." Aiden said looking over.

"We walked a couple hours through that, we didn't see anything then and there doesn't seem to be anything now… other than mountains in the distance." Cole said back to him

"Over there, there's a river going up… north I would guess, it follows the forest, goes alongside some cliffs and goes into the distance." Jack said pointing into the horizon.

"Well its a river, better than nothing, there's water too… it would at least be something to drink." Aiden said to him.

"It could leads us somewhere."

"If we follow it downhill, maybe, it could reach a city, or a town or something… if there is one."

"Hey guys, look here." Morgan called the others over, they all went to her, she pointed to the direction she was looking at, "Look at that over there." They could see a point where the forest ended and transformed into an open valley.

"Well I see the forest ends at some point." Aiden said thinking, hand in his chin.

"I wouldn't call that a bad thing, I'm getting a bit tired of going through the forest." Cole said.

"I had my eye more on what's in the distance." Morgan said, he pointed directly at what caught her attention, in the distance one could pieces of land floating, defying gravity, from the distance one could think they weren't moving but if you look closely you could see the smaller one floating in a direction, almost orbiting the bigger pieces of land.

"I haven't started seeing things right?" Aiden asked a bit taken aback by the sight.

"No I see it too, that is something." Cole said crouching down while looking at the islands.

"You think we'll find civilization over there?" Aiden asked both at Morgan and Cole.

"Well… it is a landmark that's for sure, it still could actually put us farther away from anything, I wouldn't really be able to tell." Morgan said

"That could be true, but it is something interesting and I'm still holding on to that "not walking through the forest" feeling… we could see anything coming our way too." Cole said.

"The islands are still pretty far away… maybe more than a day of travel, more than that." Aiden said.

"There's also something else in the distance, closer though." Morgan said pointing out a little bit closer to their position, in the middle of the valley.

"That looks like a road, an actual cement road." Aiden said looking at it.

"So, an actual road should lead to actual civilization. We might actually not be alone then… aside from those monsters." Cole said standing up on a heartbeat.

"Yeah..." Morgan said while Aiden stared at the road and responded with a hum, it was in a way a relief for them, all of them had had the idle worry that they might be alone with the dark creatures they encountered, even if the didn't say it to each other, however signs of something akin to civilization did fill them with some hope.

"Is still pretty far away however, but we could reach it by the afternoon if we hurry." Aiden guessed.

"Think we'll be okay?" Morgan asked.

"We should be able to last..."

"We could follow the river Jack mentioned, it follows the valley and goes in the direction of the road." Cole suggested

"We could have water close, maybe even find some more food." Morgan started

"We could be able to travel at a better pace… if we find those things." Aiden said following the reasoning.

"Seems like the best option yet… hey Jack what do you think?!" Cole shouted over to Jack that had separated from the group at some point, he was looking in another direction.

"Yeah uh… I think I got something better." He said calling them over.

"Really?" Cole asked, when they all reached the side Jack was on he pointed towards what he was looking at towards the east, they looked over in said direction as he began to explain.

"If you look over there you see a spot where the forests end in a brief valley, then it starts again, but if you look to the left, that right there seems like train track to me."

"Those are indeed train tracks." Morgan said, Aiden and Cole nodded at that.

"And if you look to where they go back over the forest..." Jack didn't need to say more, right over the treeline one could see some figures, most of it was covered by the trees, but if you looked carefully could see the top of a buildings, all with pretty eastern roofs, some were larger than others, but they could see it wasn't just a train station, it seemed like that and much more.

"Is that..." Morgan started but stopped, she couldn't believe it.

"That looks like a town." Aiden finished.

"And doesn't seem like a small one either." Jack added

"It seems to be only maybe two hours away, maybe less if we hurry..." Aiden said

"You think there will be people there?" Morgan asked, bringing up that worry of being maybe the only humans in this world "I don't see anything that make it seem like a lively place."

"Well it's still early in the morning, they could still be asleep." Cole pointed out.

"And we are too far away to really tell, even if there's no one… we could get an idea of who made the buildings and also get a roof over our heads, and maybe more." Aiden added.

"Heh, nice, more than enough for me."

"You and me both Electric man" Jack said back at Cole.

"Seems we are agreeing on this… we should go then." Morgan said

"It's the best option, let's go down then." Aiden said as he started to climb down the peak of the mountain in small jumps.

"Roger that." Cole answered as he also jumped down alongside with Jack and Morgan, the four of them were back at the nest were they were going to start going down the east side of the mountain, however something changed in the air, there was a weird current on it, as if something was close, they noticed it, all of them, they were with their weapons back again at the ready, they were trying to pinpoint were it was coming from, it was definitely something different, the tension it carried was enough to realize. Aiden soon raised his fist as to signal them to stop. He shushed quietly, he was trying to hear something.

"Is it what I think it is?" Jack asked in a hushed whisper, suddenly all of them could hear it.

It was the flapping of wings.

"We better get down now." Cole said, they all soon went for the east side, but as they neared the edge, a giant black form came from underneath and upwards to the sky with a screech, getting them to back away, there a big Nevermore hovered over them flapping its wings.

"Well, it is as big as a house." Aiden said.

"No shit." Cole retorted back as he started crackling lightning in his hands.

"Any ideas?" Jack asked readying his new shotgun. The Nevermore didn't wait for a plan however, it flapped its wings and from them feathers were shot as projectiles towards them, everyone reacted accordingly rolling or dashing out of the way, they all saw as the feathers went through and got stuck on the hard rock.

"Do not get impaled is the first idea." Cole yelled, the Nevermore didn't stay put either, it started circling the nest as they spoke.

"We should focus fire on it, aim for its head!" Morgan yelled.

"We can't waste energy or ammo, we must do it when we have a clear shot." Aiden said.

"Basically bait it into a good position for us." Cole said.

"Yeah… it's a bird so it would probably try to dive and kill us with its talons, when it gets close we shoot it, the ones with powers should pester it more while it's on the air." Aiden said.

"So everyone but you?" Jack asked, paying attention as the giant black bird circled them.

"I'll do my part." Aiden assured him as he brandished both his and Jack's pistol.

"Hope you do." Morgan quipped, the Nevermore immediately came out of his circling around and dived towards them, it didn't try to grab them however, instead it dived with its wings spread out, it flew pretty close to nest, its sharp wings tearing part of the little peak of the mountain, Jack and Aiden slid under the Nevermore to avoid the dive while Cole and Morgan jumped over it, Cole with his thrusters and Morgan with her Lift Field. As it started to get away all of the fired what they could, Aiden fired both his guns, Cole threw lightning bolts, Jack fired a time blast and Morgan used an electrostatic burst. Both Morgan's and Jack's projectiles were single-use and had to recharge their energies before they had to fire again, but they did heavy damage to the Nevermore and made it stumble as it flew threw the air. Cole and Aiden continued to fire away pestering it, it definitely seemed to work since it dived out of their field view soon after.

When the Nevermore returned, it was from an opposite side, it was smart enough to not try and attack from the same direction it did before, instead hoping to flank them, it fired feathers at them again, everybody jumped and dodged out of the way of them, but Jack rushed forward with his time rush, he appeared at the edge closest to the Nevermore and fired shots away with his shotgun. The Nevermore got annoyed and flew forward a bit to try and devour Jack, Jack himself widened his eyes and dashed immediately away, just before potentially being eaten. He did dash away more out of panic than any thought out plan.

However the Nevermore was closer to the ground now and Cole took the chance to throw lightning grenades, Aiden kept firing with both pistols and Morgan shot with her shotgun, distracting it, the Nevermore covered itself with its wing and swung it to throw more feathers at them, they quickly got out of the way. The Nevermore screeched and once again Jack was next to it, firing the shotgun at its head, he dashed away as fast as he had done before, the Nevermore tried to bite again with no results, it flapped its wings again, several times, sending volleys of feathers and causing gust of winds, the team dodged out of the way, and used whatever rock that was large enough as cover from the feathers, the wind they just braced themselves and kept firing whatever they could.

Cole fired a missile, it got blocked by the wing of the Nevermore, in turn it tried to bite him, Cole rolled out of the way however, Jack came for support dashing with his shotgun again and placing a Time Stop bubble on the Nevermore's head, it didn't do much due to the size of it but it was enough for it to be partially slowed down. Everyone fired except for Cole fired their guns at the bubble, once it collapsed the Nevermore was stunned at the sudden barrage of bullets that it received, all condensed into the bubble, it landed forcefully on the ground but retaliated quickly spinning its wings as if they were blades around and batting them throwing more feathers.

Aiden fired his pistol quickly in normal shots and Jack's in burst fire rounds continuously, he had to duck the wings and roll to the side to avoid a barrage of feathers however, Cole moved and was ready to move in with a gigawatt blade, but was batted away by one of the wings, Morgan then quickly made a kinetic blast to knock away the Nevermore, it connected and the Nevermore retaliated with a swing of its wing and another bite, Morgan phantom shifted away from both attacks as they came. Not comfortable fighting on the ground the Nevermore made a move to fly up into the air again, but Jack quickly rushed in again and place a time stop on its talons, effectively grounding it, he fired the shotgun twice again before the Nevermore quickly snapped to him pecked right to him. Jack dodged but the impact of the peck shattered the stone and sent him flying backwards.

"Argh" Jack grunted. Cole came in quickly however firing lightning bolts and point blank lightning palm that staggered the Nevermore, however he got flung to the edge of the peak by the violent swing of a wing.

"Aaah! Whoa…" He luckily managed to hang by edge before falling off. The Nevermore focused back on the current person shooting at it, which was Aiden, it quickly pecked at him while he was reloading, Aiden dodged barely and on instinct tried to use his baton, he did hit the face of the Nevermore, it didn't do much however.

"Shit." He cursed, the Nevermore stared at him and opened its mouth... and quickly shrieked the moment an explosion set it's back on fire, Aiden got away quickly while shooting, the Nevermore stared back behind it and saw Morgan, it tried to attack her but she dashed away, from the other side Jack dashed in and out with shotgun blast, the Nevermore whipped it's head back around and shrieked, and the moment it did a grenade was tossed on its mouth, the explosion hurt it, and in anger it zeroed in on whoever threw it, it was Aiden.

Just then the time stop ran out, and it quickly charged Aiden who had it's back against what was left of the tallest peak, however Aiden reacted quickly and springboard of the peak onto the Nevermore's back as it charged him, whatever was left of the peak broke apart as the Nevermore charged through it, Aiden left behind his last IED and ran as the monster bird began to fly away from the mountain, he took a massive leap of his back… even then he didn't look like he was going to make it, he wasn't going to make it… fortunately, he was surprised as he suddenly stopped moving. Jack had used his Time Stop bubble again and saved him, Morgan then used her Lift Field and propelled Aiden to edge of the nest.

"Hah… thanks." Aiden said with a shaky breath.

"Don't mention it." Jack quickly said as he quickly focused back on the Nevermore, Morgan and Cole were recharging themselves by exchanging electricity, the Grimm had become more aggressive however, it quickly spun around and fired feathers and dived with its wings slightly angled… it was trying to fly by and slice them. Cole tried to fire a lightning missile but he had to roll to get out of the way, he almost got sliced as the Nevermore flew by, they all fired at with what they got, and landed heavy hits once again but the Nevermore flew by once again. Morgan got hit by one of the feathers but got saved by her Backlash, she wouldn't be able to survive another hit though, as it flew by it quickly turned directions to dive again, with more feathers of course, Cole dodged the dive while shooting bolts but still got hit by a feather, Jack got hit on the back protecting Aiden from one of the feathers and now had a pretty big gash on it, it was recovering quickly however.

"Grrh!" He grunted at the pain.

"Can you keep going?" Aiden asked quickly.

"I think… grr, I'll recover, just- Watch out!" Jack yelled, the Nevermore made another dive and was sending more feathers than before.

"Quickly!" Jack beckoned everyone close to him, they huddled closer and Jack made a bubble shield, a Time Shield that slowed and stopped projectiles on their tracks, it was enough to stop the feathers.

"This would've been useful earlier." Cole said.

"Sorry, I was sort of distracted by the giant bird monster trying to eat us." Jack yelled back to him.

"Uh… it's making a quick turn again." Morgan told all of them.

"Yeah… it's a low dive. Ideas?" Cole asked.

"Well… I got one." Aiden said as he held the detonator for his explosive, just as the Nevermore got close, he detonated it, it was enough for Nevermore to get pushed down and crash directly into the mountain, making it shake. Cole maintained his balance and quickly thought of a way to contribute to this idea. He ran to the edge and jumped, dropping directly on the Nevermore with a Thunder Drop, the Nevermore shook completely and whirled around trying to recover from the impact, Cole used his thrusters to get off from the Nevermore and back to the side of the mountain. The Nevermore flew up and Cole climbed up quickly, when he made it to the top he was met the rest of the team.

"It should be almost dead, we pretty much bombarded it." Cole said to them.

"It's barely flying, it's definitely not in good shape… think it'll run?" Jack asked.

"No, it's already turning around." Aiden said pointing at it, it was going for a bigger dive this time.

"Well I guess this is supposed to be it's home." Morgan said.

"If we make crash into the mountain again, well it might be enough to kill it… and if not to finish it off."

"We need to knock out mid flight then, it needs to a heavy hit… and I only have one grenade left." Aiden said.

"I can shoot missiles at it, or anything really." Cole said.

"It's coming really fast, it could be tricky." Jack said. "I cannot really slow it down, only big impact I have is my blast, but I cannot shoot that far."

"I also have something… it could possibly stagger it, but I also need to get closer."

"So we need it to get closer and to slow down somewhat…" Aiden pondered, he looked at both Morgan and Cole for a second. "You can trust yourself upwards right?" Aiden asked Cole.

"Heh, not that high." Cole pointed out.

"But…" Aiden pointed back at Morgan.

"But?... Wait, oh…" Morgan seemed to have caught on, very quickly they all discussed the plan.

The Nevermore for it's part, enraged had decided to dive with all its strength… but it wasn't ready for anything to meet it halfway there.

"This is a dumb fucking idea." Jack said.

"You said you needed to get closer." Cole said to him.

"Yeah but… unlike you I can't survive massive falls."

"You just have to slow down time and… well catch yourself really, you aren't flying as high as me.."

"I've never done this kind of thing before. Have you?" Cole didn't answer.

"It's getting near." Morgan said, immediately she made a Lift Field in front of them, aimed directly at the Nevermore.

"Okay… here we go." Cole said to himself, he used his thruster with the Lift Field and flew upwards with speed he went in head first against the Nevermore, for him this was something new, not the flying towards a massive monster part, no, instead the part of what he was supposed to do with his speed, he had done his Thunder drop downwards and also horizontally before, provided he had enough speed… but never upwards, this was a first, and he honestly was kind of excited. He landed his feet directly on it and bounced off of it by shooting a grenade and a shockwave to slow it down. The Nevermore got shocked and awed out of its momentum.

The Nevermore tried to correct itself mid-flight but got suddenly hit by a small object. Aiden's grenade more specifically, it bounced and was immediately shot, by Aiden no less, disorienting it even further, now it was slowing down.

"Now!" Aiden told Jack, he was next, he did something similar to Cole using his Time Rush, albeit he went up far more vertically, he didn't want to land somewhere down the mountain, once in the air, with him closer to the Nevermore and with time slowed down (To his perspective), he placed a Time Stop in front of it, and shot a Time Blast on it's back, forcing it down and slowing down a bit more, he also shot it with his shotgun for good measure but that really didn't do much. Now he had to focus on his landing strategy, a Time Stop and a Time Shield combined were good enough for making that possible thankfully.

"You got this?" Aiden asked Morgan.

"I believe I do." She said, as the giant Grimm got closer she focused and shot a Psycho Shock at the Nevermore, in its nature, it was a telepathic ability, it scrambled the Grimm's senses, making things collapse and now… well now it wasn't flying, it was plummeting. Morgan herself had another migraine right there, she held her head.

"Watch out!" Aiden yelled as the Nevermore plummeted right to where they were, he dived at Morgan and push her and himself out of the way. The Nevermore for its part crashed right into the nest, the ground shook and some of the rocks at edges came loose and fell off. Its wings were contorted now and it was barely able to stand up, still affected by the Psycho Shock.

Jack and Cole had landed back on the mountain soon after, the group was now on the center of the nest and staring at a barely alive Nevermore, it tried to look back at them, hardly being able to move. Aiden was pretty much out of magazines, he only had two for each pistol, and Morgan was still having a migraine, Cole and Jack looked at each other, they nodded and together sent one final blast to the Nevermore, a Time Stop bubble appeared on the Nevermore, Cole threw a grenade and a missile at it. Once the bubble collapsed… well… a shockwave came out it, expanding with aggressive sparks, it pushed the Nevermore over the edge, it fell, crashing to various parts of the mountain on its way down, it was dead way before it even reached the bottom.

The group peeked over the edge, once saw the remains of the Nevermore dissipating into black smoke, they let out a sigh of relief.

"I don't want to fight something that can fly again." Jack said wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"Well, could be worse." Cole said

"I lost all my explosives and almost all of my ammo… I say it could have been better." Aiden said.

"Oh come on, we are alive… if more things appear we can protect you if you are worried."

"Ha ha." Aiden lauged, not at all amused.

"Well… how about we get down from here, before something else happens?" Morgan said, recovering a bit from her migraine.

"That would be best, we still need to see if there's actual people around." Aiden said, soon they started to descend the mountain in direction of the town that they saw, hoping for the best, or at least hoping for not the worst, or another hard fight.

* * *

 **Well holy shit, I actually finished this, welp as far as I'm concerned, this is a mostly a filler chapter with a fight at the end… but yeah I did want this fic to be centered on action or at the very least character interaction, so I'll take any criticism. I also did promise a nerd over, so I'll do that. Now, do note that my goal here is to more or less balance the four characters so eventually they are all relatively equal, maybe not in what they can do but on what they can face, including possibly each other.**

 **Aiden: Welp in terms of actual age he's supposed to be 39 by the end of Watch Dogs, but for creative freedom reasons I'm going to say he's 36, so far anything from the game should still apply, which means good marksmanship, high intellect, capable of improvised weapons, split-second reactions and pretty much being durable enough to survive being tossed through a wall… at least according to his statistics on Vs Battle Wiki. The definite marksman of the group and one of the most skilled.**

 **He's probably the one that would receive the most of a power-up to compare to the other ones with powers, and since CTOS doesn't exist on Remnant… well, he's going to need new ways to get an edge on a fight, take your guesses. Just so you know, he can snipe a grenade out of the air, you can do it in game.**

 **Cole: His age appears to be 27, I don't know if that's first or second game however so I'll be safe and place his age at 28, most of his cryokinesis powers are gone, but his Electrokinesis and Electromagnetism powers are functional, most of the stuff from the games still apply, such as his high durability and strength… weaknesses are still there too. Definitely the powerhouse of the group, especially thanks to the fact that he can recharge himself with the help of Morgan.**

 **I did opt to give him a mix of his powers from both Infamous 1 and 2, seems logical for him, if it seems like he's going a bit all out with grenades and missiles, well I like to believe that with a reliable source of power he would do it, I haven't made him do something stupid, he's not stupid after all, but with allies and with one of them beign a way to recharge… I think he would be more inclined to spam his abilities a bit more.**

 **Jack: Jack is actually also 28 or 29, so I decided to settle at 28, in a way he could be the actual strongest of the group, for two reasons, controlling time is a ridiculous ability, even if it's not like complete time manipulation or travel. And two… he just regains his energy back naturally, he doesn't need a recharge station or ammunition really… as such I had to Nerf him a bit so that his time manipulation is not as instant and that his powers are a bit reduced, he's still dangerous but now people should be able to fight against him. More than that he still has some resilience, but is not as tanky as Cole, if it wasn't for his regen he wouldn't be tankier than Aiden. Still, he would be one of the fastest and consistent fighters of the group. Granted he still will have to manage his cooldowns.**

 **Morgan: Now Morgan I can say safely is 30, (I actually calculated the in-game dates.) She also was someone really tricky on deciding what I wanted for her, in-game she has some abilities that could put her on par with people like Aiden or Jack at least physically, but I wanted to change her role around, I was interested in trying her more alien abilities, as someone said… I could give her full Neuromods, but that would literally break the story, the max level of human abilities aren't really a problem… generally, but there was an ability she has that I wanted to avoid, which was Mindjack, it can really break many situations of potential conflict, even if it has a duration and cooldown, but you can Mindjack even the Nightmare. I wanted to avoid balancing something like that on fights or in general… as such I went for a build for her, she basically has a pure alien build, but around 100 or 120 Neuromods. If you search for Prey: Alien Build on youtube, the first result is the one I based myself off, it would have a couple of additions from the Human tree but it still would mostly be centered around alien abilities.**

 **The result is interesting, she becomes a very offensive character, with options on how to face her enemies and with interesting utilities, she would be the squishiest of the group, but she would be the one with the more esoteric abilities. This will improve and expand on the future, and that goes for all characters. Even then is generally cooler when a character can do more with less. I'll try to keep all characters on their theme and personalities.**

 **So yeah, that would be that. This time I do have someone that will kick my shit in if I don't update, so hopefully, I will have another chapter out soon.**

 **See ya for now- CrowSkull.**


End file.
